‘EU Band Together to Secure Ammunition for Ukraine’

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EU leaders agreed on Thursday to help Ukraine fight off Russia’s invasion. They plan to get 1 million rounds of ammunition to the country within the next 12 months. This idea was already approved by EU foreign and defense ministers earlier this week, but it needed the official ‘ok’ from all 27 European Union countries at their meeting in Brussels.

The European Council recently voted to give Ukraine ground-to-ground and artillery ammunition, as well as missiles if requested. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the leaders for this generous decision during a video call.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that it’s very important to act quickly in order to save more lives. He also mentioned that he was concerned because there were more protractions than successes in the joint efforts between countries. The Kremlin, he pointed out, is aware of this and it stops peace from being achieved.

President Zelensky asked world leaders to give Ukraine airplanes and missiles so they can defend themselves from the battle. Estonia Prime Minister, Kaja Kallas, proposed that all countries in Europe should join forces to buy more supplies for Ukraine as their ammunition has been running low for over a year.

Kallas arrived at the summit and said that sending ammunition to Ukraine quickly is very important because it could help end the war. The European Defense Agency will help member countries to get more ammunition by talking with companies that make it in Europe.

It is estimated that in Ukraine, around 6,000-7,000 artillery shells are being fired every day. This amounts to about 1/3 of all the artillery shells being fired in Russia. European Council President Charles Michel has also announced his support towards Ukraine and their struggle for freedom, stating that he will stay with them ‘for as long as it takes.’

EU’s leader Josep Borrell said this week that countries in Europe are going to spend 2 billion euros ($1.1 billion) on buying ammunition, like artillery shells. The first 1 billion euros will be used to get the ammo from existing stocks, while the other 1 billion euros will help groups of at least three nations to buy the ammo together through the European Defense Agency.

Hungary said it won’t give ammo to Ukraine, because it wants peace. But Hungary also said it won’t stop other countries from giving ammo to Ukraine.

Last month, the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, said that instead of punishing Russia or sending money and weapons to Ukraine, the European Union should have tried to make peace with Russia first.

Bulgaria’s President, Rumen Radev, said that the country will not send any weapons until there is a new government in place. He said that this decision is up to Bulgaria and Bulgaria will support the efforts to make peace with Europe.

Leaders also talked about giving an extra 3.5 billion euros to the European Peace Facility, which is money used for providing Ukraine with weapons, ammunition and military help.

On Thursday, the U.N. Secretary General António Guterres sat together with EU leaders for lunch and warned them about the difficult global situation the world is in, called a “perfect storm”. He said that more people have been suffering from hunger, poverty and lack of education and health care services, adding that our current financial system is unable to handle this massive challenge.

At the EU meeting, leaders talked about how to tackle climate change, how to stay competitive with other countries, and how to respond to the U.S.’s recent $369 billion plan to reduce inflation. On Friday they will discuss money-related issues. Someone named Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria worked on this story. If you want to learn more about a war in Ukraine look up “Russia Ukraine” online.