The imbalance in the supply of weapons is a serious miscalculation of Western partners of Ukraine. NATO Secretary General in 2009-2014 and current adviser to the President of Ukraine Anders Fogh Rasmussen proposed five ideas that will help to start acting and solve this problem. in The Wall Street Journal.
Rasmussen recalled that North Korea supplied Moscow with as much artillery ammunition in one month as the European Union was able to supply to Kyiv in a year.
“Russia produces three million projectiles a year, while the United States and Europe together are able to produce only 1.2 million for Kyiv. Despite the enormous economic power of the democratic world, the arsenal of autocracies in Russia, Iran, and North Korea is ahead of us,” the politician noted. .
He warned that if Western allies do not immediately increase the supply of arms and ammunition to Ukraine, the future will be bleak.
“If Putin is not stopped in Ukraine, it will mean decades of instability and conflict in Europe,” wrote the ex-NATO Secretary General.
In the face of a new threat from a militarized autocracy, Rasmussen offered five ideas for action.
First, governments should enter into long-term contracts with the defense industry, to ensure that companies have the necessary capital to rapidly expand capacity.
Secondly, the process of concluding contracts should be simplified and shortened. A signed letter of intent should be sufficient to start production quickly, and the legal details should be worked out during the case. defense contracts so that production can begin with direct orders to companies able to supply arms or ammunition immediately.
Fourth, the defense industry should be allowed to amortize investments in new production facilities faster than usual to reflect the hopes of reducing the horizons of wars and conflicts.
Rasmussen also notes that sovereign wealth funds, as well as private pension and investment funds, should create special pools for investments in the defense industry. This will make it possible to attract private capital, which is necessary for the rapid development of the defense industry.
Ammunition shortage for Ukraine
At the beginning of May 2023, the EU Council approved a decision on aid for Ukraine in the amount of 1 billion euros for joint purchases of ammunition and missiles. It was planned that by March 2024 European countries would provide Ukraine with one million shells. However, the EU countries were unable to fulfill the plan in time and collected only 600,000 ammunition for Ukraine.
In February of this year, the President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, said that his country had found 800,000 artillery ammunition for Ukraine's military needs. Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Denmark, Canada and France supported the financing of the purchase of projectiles.
Later it became known that even 1.5 million projectiles could be transferred to Ukraine, instead of 800,000.