EU accelerates weapons supply to support Ukraine’s counteroffensive – European Commissioner for Internal Market Breton

The European Union is accelerating the supply of weapons to Ukraine to support the counteroffensive of Ukraine's armed forces.

The European Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton, stated this, Voice of America reports.

"We're going to step up our efforts to deliver weapons and ammunition — this is a high-intensity war in which they play a critical role," Breton said.

It should be noted that on March 20, the EU countries agreed on a plan according to which they promised to transfer 1 million projectiles to Ukraine per year.

In addition, the Council of the EU approved allocating money for ammunition for Ukraine.

However, the countries of the European Union could not agree on the joint procurement of ammunition for Ukraine for a long time.

Nevertheless, at the beginning of May, the Council of the EU approved a decision to aid Ukraine with 1 billion euros for the joint procurement of ammunition and missiles.

After that, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal noted that the EU countries would now send ammunition to Ukraine.

Earlier, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, criticized the inability of the European Union to quickly implement the decision regarding the purchase of ammunition for Ukraine. He emphasized that such delay is measured by human life.

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It should be noted that Deputy Minister of Defense Volodymyr Havrylov said that Ukraine is seizing the initiative on the battlefield. Still, Ukraine needs weapons with a range of up to 200 km for the build-up.

In her turn, Deputy Minister of Defense Hanna Maliar reported that in the south, the troops of Ukraine's armed forces are conducting active offensive actions in several directions at once. They have partial success, although they operate in conditions of aviation and artillery superiority of the Russian invaders.

As Rubryka wrote, over the past day, June 16, the Ukrainian army eliminated about 700 invaders; since the beginning of the Russian aggression, the occupiers have lost more than 219,000 soldiers.