"Germany plans to deliver around 3 to 4 times more artillery ammunition to Ukraine in 2024 than in 2023".
This was stated by the German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius upon his arrival at the meeting of the Contact Group on the Defense of Ukraine (KGOU) in Brussels, The Independent reported.
Recently, the EU's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, admitted that the bloc would not be able to provide Ukraine with one million artillery shells by March. Only about half of that number is expected to be delivered by then.
"The lesson of this war is that ammunition is essential to operational readiness," Pistorius said.
He referred to his February 12 visit to the construction site of a new munitions plant in Germany being built by German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall. The factory is expected to be able to produce up to 200,000 artillery shells per year.
Germany will spend more than 3.5 billion euros to buy ammunition in 2024, the defense minister said, describing it as an "unprecedented" figure.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he expects 18 of NATO's 31 member states, including Germany, to meet the target of spending at least 2 percent of their GDP on defense in 2024, an increase of seven countries from the previous year ./BGNES