A Germany and Francethe second largest arms exporter in the world, will join forces and start a weapons production chain in Kievin an attempt to increase Ukrainian military power, at a time when troops are “desperately” running out of ammunition, they announced this Friday, according to Bloomberg.
The warning had already been given a day earlier by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, stating that “the Ukrainians are not running out of courage, they are running out of ammunition”, urging the lack of “political will” on the part of the United States. alliance members to help the invaded country.
In response, this Friday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz met with Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, to discuss “how we can support Ukraine in a very concrete way and even more strong”.
On the same day, the European Commission confirmed the allocation of 500 million euros for the European Union to increase ammunition production and urgently supply ammunition and, if necessary, missiles to Ukraine.
The lack of defense weapons has fueled fears of a collapse of Kiev troops, increasing the hypothesis of the advance of forces led by President Vladimir Putin on Ukrainian soil. As the Ukrainian army fights Russian advances, the three leaders met to discuss the best strategy to assist the country invaded more than two years ago.
In early March, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu announced that KNDS, a Franco-German manufacturer of battle tanks, was among the companies that will establish partnerships to produce equipment in Ukraine. According to Bloomberg, the value of shares of defense companies listed in Paris, such as Airbus and Safran, are trading higher with the measure.
Reviewed by Marta Velho
