Denmark will send its entire stock of ammunition to Kyiv, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced, becoming the first to do so and appealing to other European nations to do more to help Ukraine.
“They [the Ukrainians] are asking us for ammunition now. Artillery now. From the Danish side, we decided to donate our entire artillery,” Frederiksen said, speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Sunday.
Frederiksen said European leaders often refer to production problems as obstacles to increasing supplies.
“Sorry to say, friends, there is still military equipment in stock in Europe,” she said.
“It is not only a question about production because we have weapons, we have ammunition, we have air defence systems that we don’t have to use ourselves at the moment – that must be handed over to Ukraine,” she added.
Denmark’s decision comes as the EU has recently acknowledged that the bloc will fall short of the promised one million artillery rounds it had pledged for Ukraine by March.
Around 524,000 shells will be delivered to Ukraine by the original date, representing roughly 52% of its target, the EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell told reporters last month.
The Danish announcement comes as Ukrainian forces withdrew from the key eastern town of Avdiivka over the weekend and, in general, are outgunned and outmanned by attacking Russian troops.
Copenhagen has pledged €8.4 billion in military aid so far.
According to the Kiel Institute, Denmark’s military aid commitments increased by €3.5 billion since November – making it one of the several biggest military donors by percentage of GDP.
(Alexandra Brzozowski| Euractiv.com)
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Source: euractiv.com
