{"id":2986446,"date":"2023-11-30T06:11:59","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T11:11:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress-1016567-4521551.cloudwaysapps.com\/plato-data\/facing-failure-estonia-pushes-eu-ammunition-target-for-ukraine\/"},"modified":"2023-11-30T06:11:59","modified_gmt":"2023-11-30T11:11:59","slug":"facing-failure-estonia-pushes-eu-ammunition-target-for-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"station","link":"https:\/\/platodata.io\/plato-data\/facing-failure-estonia-pushes-eu-ammunition-target-for-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"Facing failure, Estonia pushes EU ammunition target for Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"
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MILAN \u2014 The European Union\u2019s sluggish progress in drastically increasing ammunition supplies to Ukraine has Baltic nation Estonia nervous about some member nations\u2019 internal politics getting in the way, according to a senior Estonian defense official.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn our part, we are constantly pushing different nations to not give up because the timeline of deliveries is next March, so we still have a couple of months ahead of us to either fully reach it or at least get as close to it as possible,\u201d Tuuli Duneton, undersecretary for defense policy said, told Defense News in an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say I am entirely pessimistic about the EU target, but a lot remains to be done,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Estonia was a key initiator last spring of an EU plan to jointly deliver 1 million rounds of ammunition<\/a> to Ukraine by March 2024.<\/p>\n

Duneton\u2019s comments came after Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on Kyiv\u2019s backers to ensure that the country has enough 155mm artillery shells to repel invading Russian forces, with companies synced to execute substantial production increases.<\/p>\n

For now, the number of shells delivered is 300,000, according to Kuleba.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to create a Euro-Atlantic common area of defense industries,\u201d he said ahead of a meeting with his NATO counterparts in Brussels this week.<\/p>\n

In Tallinn\u2019s view, the diagnosis of what went wrong so far in producing the envisioned amount is more complicated than EU leaders\u2019 initial reaction<\/a> of pointing the finger at industry<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAltogether, European nations have not in previous years placed significant orders for 155mm ammunition, and all of a sudden there is a need to put peak orders on the market right away,\u201d Duneton said. \u201cSimultaneously, many bigger states, the same who are struggling to fulfill NATO\u2019s 2%, are scrambling to achieve that target while facing their own domestic issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

A contributing factor is the secrecy with which some governments treat Ukraine support and related domestic production increases, which makes to difficult to compare notes among member nations.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the big things we struggle with in Europe, is there is little visibility on what have been the bigger orders from different nations\u2019 to their defense industry and what they are doing. A majority of nations do not share the information,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The overall vagueness could also be due to political hedging, Duneton added, without wanting to name specific countries. \u201cA possibility could be that they haven\u2019t put any orders into the pipelines, in which case we must ask: Are they really willing to finance those orders? Industry cannot extend its production infinitely if they do not see orders coming in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The outcome of Ukraine\u2019s defense is considered existential for Estonia, as officials there believe a victorious Moscow could target the Baltics next, Duneton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is possible that this threat perception is not as widely shared by all, as of course it always depends on where one is geographically located, but from our perspective, we need to pull all the stops to make Ukraine win,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. She covers a wide range of topics related to military procurement and international security, and specializes in reporting on the aviation sector. She is based in Milan, Italy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n