BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union’s diplomatic service has proposed boosting the bloc’s military aid for Ukraine, aiming to show continued support for Kyiv as the United States and Russia have begun talks about ending the war.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has repeatedly called on his allies to honour all their promises to supply Ukraine with weapons, including those to counter Russian air attacks.
The EU proposal, in a brief paper seen by Reuters, suggests each member state fulfil a financial quota based on the size of its economy to produce a package that would include 1.5 million rounds of artillery ammunition to be delivered this year.
Diplomats held initial talks on the plan – first reported by Politico – this week in Brussels and EU foreign ministers may discuss it on Monday, diplomats said. But no decisions on the proposal are expected at that meeting, they said.
The proposal by the EU’s External Action Service does not put an estimated value on the package. But diplomats said the aim was to come up with a plan worth billions of euros.
The proposal says the main goals of the package would be to supply at least 1.5 million rounds of large-calibre artillery ammunition, as well as air defence systems, missiles for deep precision strikes and drones.
It would be largely up to EU governments to fund the package – a potentially significant challenge when many of them are already operating with tight public finances.
However, some of the funding could come from the profits from Russian assets frozen in the EU, the proposal says.
The EU says its members have provided some 48.5 billion euros in military aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022.
In March 2023, the European Union pledged to supply Ukraine with 1 million artillery shells and missiles within a year but ended up taking more than six months longer than planned to meet that target.
(Reporting by Andrew Gray; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
