The Defense Ministers of the European Union member states will listen to the information of their Ukrainian counterpart Oleksiy Reznikov about the latest developments on the battlefield, about the needs of the Ukrainian army and discuss ways to accelerate the supply of ammunition and artillery to Ukraine.

On Monday, announcing the upcoming informal meeting of the heads of defense departments, which will be held in Stockholm on March 7-8, a representative of the Swedish government told reporters.

He said that the first session would be devoted to EU support for Ukraine and consists of three parts. At the first one, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov will brief EU ministers: he will talk about the latest developments on the ground and about the most important priorities and needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He expressed hope that Reznikov will personally be able to take part in the meeting.

The second part, according to the interlocutor of the journalists, will be devoted to the discussion of the EU-Ukraine military support mission, in which the military representatives of Poland and Germany will talk about how training is progressing, what challenges and opportunities there are for the military who are trained in this mission. At the third part, he said, the ministers will discuss the possibilities of accelerating the supply and production of artillery ammunition that Ukraine urgently needs, joint purchases and how they will accelerate the capabilities of the European industry for the production of ammunition.

Answering the question of the Interfax-Ukraine agency when an official decision on joint procurement of ammunition can be made, he explained that many options for this specific initiative of Estonia have yet to be agreed and worked out. According to him, the EU Foreign Diplomatic Service hopes that agreements will be reached, at the latest, at the meeting of the Council on Foreign Affairs on March 20. He said they have a hope that at Wednesday's meeting, the defense ministers will be able to better understand the possible aspects that should be taken into account for this initiative: whether this (joint procurement) will be entrusted to the European Defense Agency or it will be the member states, whether it will be a combination and so on - much still needs to be worked out and agreed, including funding from the European peace fund or from another source – which they have not yet decided what it will be. He thinks that at this meeting on Wednesday, the EU member states will talk about the modality to be able to continue working in Brussels. To his mind, March 20 is an ambitious but realistic date when, as they hope, a decision can be made so that it can be confirmed by the European Council later in a couple of days.

Answering the question about possible financing, the interlocutor of the journalists recalled that the proposals of the Foreign Diplomatic Service start with EUR 1 billion for the first track, which is that they select everything from their vaults that they have – it will be for reimbursement. There is also a discussion, he said, that the second billion, which they agreed for the peace fund, will be allocated for the second track – and this is joint purchases. Then there should be a discussion regarding additional money, which will not be easy according to him.

In addition, during the informal meeting, the heads of defense departments intend to get a better understanding of what is still left in the storage facilities of the member states and how quickly production capacities can be accelerated. The commitments (regarding procurement) for the coming years will be a strong political and economic impetus for the industry, he said. According to him, the most important thing now is to discuss how they can supply more ammunition and artillery to Ukraine and even faster than they are doing it now. This is their primary goal.

The ministers will also discuss China and Wagner PMC.