Borrell, request to the EU/ To strengthen the defense industry for possible threats

2024-03-11 17:12:09, Kosova & Bota CNA

Borrell, request to the EU/ To strengthen the defense industry for possible

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has urged the bloc to strengthen its defense industry and replenish stocks to be ready to face "possible threats", while continuing to provide military aid. for Ukraine.

Ukraine, which relies heavily on Western supplies of military equipment, particularly the United States, has been forced to ration its ammunition stocks in the face of an increasingly intense attack by Russia.

The Russian occupation of Ukraine has entered its third year.

"After two years of high-intensity warfare, available supplies have been depleted and the conflict has shifted from a supply war to a production war," Borrell wrote on March 11 in an article on the European Defense Industrial Strategy presented to the European Commission on 5 March.

As a critical $60 billion military aid package remains blocked in the US House of Representatives, due to Republican opposition, Ukraine has become more dependent on supplies from European allies.

Borrell said the EU urgently needs to overcome the current fragmentation of its defense industry and become "defense ready" through more joint defense procurement and projects.

As it consolidates its defense capabilities and ramps up production, the EU "could use the windfall of frozen Russian assets to buy weapons for Ukraine and/or help strengthen its defense industry," Borrell wrote.

"Until now, we have considered using these profits to support the reconstruction of Ukraine. However, currently, the main issue in Ukraine is not so much reconstruction, but avoiding further destruction," he wrote.

His comments came as CNN, citing an unnamed senior European intelligence official, reported on March 11 that Russia was producing three times more artillery ammunition than the United States and the EU combined.

"What we are in now is a war of production," the senior NATO official told CNN.

Russia is currently producing 250,000 artillery shells a month, or about 3 million a year, the source told CNN, adding that the United States and Europe together have the capacity to send Ukraine about 1.2 million shells a year.

While increasing its own production capabilities, Russia has also reportedly imported massive quantities of artillery ammunition from North Korea and Iran.

In late January, Borrell admitted that the EU would be far short of its previously set target of sending 1 million artillery shells to Ukraine by March, saying that about half had been delivered by that deadline, and that the rest would be sent by the end of the year.

In an interview with Radio Free Europe last month, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, Borrell said: "We have to do more, I know. It's never enough."/ REL