Portugal is among a group of 18 countries that will purchase artillery ammunition for Ukraine

The Minister of Defense announced on Tuesday that Portugal will become one of 18 European states that have joined the project for the joint purchase of ammunition for Ukraine.

At the end of the meeting of European Union (EU) foreign and defense ministers in Brussels, Helena Carreiras used words recently used by Josep Borrell and called the agreement to acquire artillery ammunition to increase military support to Ukraine at a time when Moscow is leading a major offensive, trying to capture more territory from the captured country.

According to the minister, Portugal is one of 18 countries that will join the project of the European Defense Agency for the joint acquisition of artillery ammunition: part for the continuation of assistance to Ukraine, for which member states will be reimbursed “between 50% and 60%”, and another for stock recovery.

There is a “significant financial package” of 1 billion euros to “compensate the states involved in this acquisition,” Helena Carreiras elaborated.

At the same time, the European Union wants to “promote the production” of munitions and “repair this industrial capacity gap”, which, as the minister explained, is the result of decades of reduced investment in the defense of various Union countries. since there was no prospect of a war of this magnitude on the continent.

“Work has been done both to inventory what is available to each state and by industry to have an idea of ​​what can be done,” he commented.

This agreement already received political approval at an informal meeting of EU defense ministers in Stockholm, Sweden two weeks ago, and now it only needs final approval in the European Council.

Regarding the supply of ammunition from Portugal to Ukraine, Helena Carreiras mentioned that the country “already supplied 2,000 ammunition for 120mm mortars”: “Our “stocks” are small, like in other countries, there is no expanded capacity to provide ammunition. .”