German Defense Minister： The EU cannot fulfill its promise to deliver 1 million artillery shells to Ukraine.

　　According to Agence France-Presse reported in Reference News on November 14th, German Defense Minister Boris Pistori said on the 14th that the EU would not be able to fulfill its previous commitment to supply 1 million artillery shells to Ukraine within one year. At the same time, the EU is trying to ensure the supply of weapons to Kiev.

　　In March this year, the European Union approved a plan costing 2 billion euros and promised to provide 1 million artillery shells to Ukraine in the coming year. However, a source recently revealed that this plan has only been completed about 30%.

　　At the meeting of defense ministers of EU member states held in Brussels on 14th, Pistori Uss questioned whether this goal was realistic. Pistori Uss said: "It was warned that one million shells are easy to export, money is available, but production must be in place. Unfortunately, these warnings have now been confirmed. What is certain is that 1 million shells will not be realized. "

　　It is reported that this statement made by Pistori Ouss is the first time that high-level officials of EU countries have publicly admitted that this goal cannot be achieved, and the defense ministers of other countries attending the defense ministers’ meeting of EU members have not refuted Pistori Ouss’ statement. Some officials attending the meeting said that European military enterprises do not have the production capacity to achieve this goal. However, some officials believe that it is worthwhile to set an ambitious goal and encourage enterprises to increase production capacity, and say that European military enterprises are "making progress" in increasing production capacity.

　　According to borrell, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, in the first phase of the EU’s ammunition aid program to Ukraine, the EU has provided more than 300,000 artillery shells, some of which came from ammunition stocks of member countries. In the second phase of the plan, the key task of the EU is to order more shells from military enterprises according to the joint ammunition procurement plan.

　　According to CCTV news, the European Defence Agency said on September 29th that according to an EU joint ammunition procurement plan drawn up in March this year, seven EU countries have ordered 155 mm caliber artillery shells for Ukraine. According to the plan, EU countries except neutral countries and Norway will jointly purchase ammunition for Ukraine. The EU also promised to provide Ukraine with 1 million 155 mm caliber artillery shells within one year. At that time, the European Defence Agency indicated that there might be more ammunition orders from EU member states in the coming months.