The heads of the ministries will also have an informal meeting with the head of the Ukrainian defense department, Oleksiy Reznikov.
The defense ministers of the member states of the European Union will listen to information from their Ukrainian counterpart Oleksiy Reznikov about the latest developments on the battlefield, about the needs of the Ukrainian army, and discuss the way to speed up the supply of ammunition and artillery to Ukraine. The upcoming informal meeting of the heads of defense departments, which will be held March 7-8 in Stockholm. This was announced by a representative of the Swedish government at a meeting with journalists on Monday, March 6, reports Interfax-Ukraine.
“The first session will be devoted to EU support for Ukraine and will consist of three parts. In the first session, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov will brief EU ministers on the latest developments on the ground and the most important priorities and needs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. We hope that he will be able to personally attend the meeting,” he said.
The second part, according to the journalists’ interlocutor, will be devoted to the discussion of the EU-Ukraine military auxiliary mission.
“In the third part, the ministers will discuss the possibilities to speed up the supply and production of artillery ammunition that Ukraine urgently needs, we will discuss joint procurement and how we can speed up the European industry’s production capabilities of ammunition,” added Sweden’s representative.
He also replied that he was asked by the Ukrainian news agency when an official decision on the joint purchase of ammunition could be made.
According to him, there are many options for the particular Estonian initiative that still need to be agreed upon and worked on.
“I think, in this meeting on Wednesday, it is about the modality, so that we can continue to work in Brussels. I think March 20 is an ambitious but realistic date when, hopefully, a decision can be made to be confirmed of the European Council later in a few days,” he said.
The Swedish official also answered a question about possible funding. He recalled that the proposals of the External Diplomatic Service “start from 1 billion for the first track, which we chose everything from our vaults that we have – this is for reimbursement.”
In addition, during an informal meeting, the heads of the defense departments aimed to “get a better understanding of what is left in the storage facilities of the member states and how much quickly the production capacities can be accelerated.”
The official added that the ministers will also discuss China, PMC Wagner.
Remember, on February 19 it became known that the countries of the European Union in March could agree on a joint purchase of ammunition, which will be given to Ukraine.
Earlier, Estonia called on the EU to increase the production of ammunition for Ukraine.
news Correspondent.net on Telegram. Subscribe to our channel Athletistic
Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.