EU says 200,000 shells sent to Ukraine under ammo plan

The EU has supplied Ukraine with over 200,000 artillery shells and 1,000 missiles under a plan to rush urgently needed ammunition to Kyiv, the bloc's foreign policy chief said Tuesday.

The European Union has agreed to spend two billion euros (around $2.2 billion) from its common funds to try to get a million rounds of artillery ammunition to Ukraine over twelve months.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said so far "220,000 artillery munitions of different calibre and 1,300 missiles have been provided" to Kyiv under the scheme.

Ukraine's international backers are scrambling to deliver ammunition as Kyiv's forces gear up for a promised counter-offensive to push back Moscow's troops.

The EU plan provides a first billion euros to get member states to send ammunition urgently from their existing stockpiles.

The money is intended to reimburse the partial cost of ammunition provided from 9 February to 31 May 2023.

The second billion from EU funds will go towards covering joint procurement contracts signed by the bloc's member states for 155-millimetre shells by the end of September.

EU officials have batted away major doubts over the ability of the European defence industry to manufacture that number of shells.

Brussels has proposed a package of financing to help companies increase their production capacity.