Western states need to buy shells in third countries and hand them over to Ukraine, they should also stop exporting their ammunition and give the entire stockpile to the Ukrainian army, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said.
The minister said that “there is a decision where and how to get the shells.”
“Now – it will not be a secret – in third countries, that is, partners should buy shells in third countries and transfer them to Ukraine. Second: the partners should stop exporting their shells to third countries and transfer everything [to Ukraine]. Then we will compensate for this shortage [of shells] until the military defence industry [of Western countries] deploys at full capacity,” TASS quoted Kuleba as saying.
For Kiev, obtaining shells remains “topic No. 1,” but there are several other priority issues, including supplies of air defence systems and long-range missiles, the minister said.
“Everyone here understands: ATACMS and Taurus are key things. The fourth priority, a comprehensive one, is to maximise the production of weapons by our partners and together with Ukraine,” Kuleba said.
As the Ukrainian foreign minister noted in an interview with ABC, the Ukrainian army’s losses in the territories are not of strategic importance.
