Germany has pledged to give Ukraine “four times more” ammunition as its war with invading Russian forces nears the two-year anniversary mark.
On Wednesday, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that Germany would “increase artillery supplies to Ukraine by three to four times this year compared to 2023,” according to Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform. Pistorius made the remarks in Brussels during a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, also known as the “Ramstein group.”
Ukraine has had difficulty maintaining adequate supplies of ammunition in recent months, with concerns having recently increased due to diminished military aid from allies. Josep Borrell, the top diplomat of the European Union (EU), said on January 31 that the EU would only be able to provide about half of the 1 million artillery shells that it previously promised to Ukraine by March.
Pistorius and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attended a groundbreaking ceremony for a new artillery ammunition factory in Germany earlier this week. The factory will reportedly be able to produce 200,000 artillery shells per year after being completed. A European Parliament report published in November 2023 estimated that Ukraine was using up to 7,000 shells per day.
David Hecker
“The war in Ukraine will ultimately be decided on the assembly line in producing countries of the world, and there is a global shortage of ammunition,” Pistorius told reporters outside the meeting on Wednesday. “That’s why I very much welcome the fact that German industry is taking the next step in expansion [of ammunition supplies].”
Pistorius went on to say that Germany would be spending the “unprecedented” amount of €3.5 billion, or $3.75 billion, on ammunition production during 2024. He also reportedly said that Germany would be purchasing production lines and ammunition from abroad.
Newsweek reached out for comment to the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs via email on Wednesday night.
The Ramstein group meeting took place on the sidelines of a meeting of NATO defense secretaries in Brussels on Wednesday. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg hailed the Ramstein group as “a very big success story” that “mobilized support from NATO allies and partners” in a press conference earlier in the day.
Stoltenberg also said during the press conference that Germany was one of 18 NATO member allies expected to meet their goal this year of using at least 2 percent of national GDP on defense, a feat that the country had not achieved since the early 1990s.
Additionally, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Wednesday that Germany was one of three NATO countries, alongside Estonia and the Netherlands, that had joined an international “drone coalition,” which intends to boost Kyiv’s war effort with an improved supply of unmanned aerial vehicles.
Despite help from Germany and other allies, Russia will still likely maintain a clear ammunition advantage over Ukraine. An Estonian intelligence report published earlier this week concluded that “Russian Armed Forces have at their disposal three to four times more ammunition per day than the Ukrainian forces.”
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.