Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba named three urgent steps that Ukraine expects from the European Union to increase the supply of artillery shells to the front for Ukrainian soldiers.

"I would like to highlight three urgent steps that we expect from the European Union to increase the supply of artillery shells to Ukraine for the needs of the front, for the needs of our soldiers. First, we call on EU governments to sign long-term contracts with defense companies in order to facilitate the increase of production capacities of these companies," he said at a joint press conference with the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell in Kyiv on Wednesday.

The second step is to remove all regulatory barriers to interaction between European defense companies, Kuleba said.

"For both European and Ukrainian companies, so that there are no administrative obstacles, no legal obstacles to interaction between them and ramping up the production," he said.

Kuleba also backed Borrell's words about the need to stimulate negotiations with European companies and third countries in order to restructure and reorient existing contracts for the supply of shells from these countries to Ukraine.

"Another step falls into the same category. It is necessary to increase the import of ammunition from third countries and their warehouses. If we act comprehensively on all these tracks, the increase in artillery shells at the front will become noticeable," the Ukrainian minister said.

Kyiv also expects the speedy creation of a Ukraine Facility, Kuleba added, thanking the EU once again for "two historic decisions": on opening negotiations with the European Union and on the creation of the Facility in the amount of EUR 50 billion.

"This was a signal not only to Europe, not only to Ukraine, not only to Russia. This was a signal to the whole world about the power of decisions that the European Union is capable of making for the sake of the security and prosperity of Europe. We are working to ensure that these decisions are implemented according to the established schedules. So far, we see no obstacles on this path. In principle, we are moving according to plan towards the set results," he said.