[Source: Reuters]

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba gets a chance to vent Kyiv’s frustration to European Union foreign ministers over wrangling that is holding up an EU plan to buy ammunition to help Ukraine fight Russia’s invasion.

Kuleba expressed frustration in a tweet last week that a landmark deal for EU countries to jointly buy artillery shells for Ukraine has not yet been implemented due to disagreements over how much of the business has to stay within Europe.

“The inability of the EU to implement its own decision on the joint procurement of ammunition for Ukraine is frustrating,” Kuleba said on Thursday.

“For Ukraine, the cost of inaction is measured in human lives,” he warned.

Kuleba can make his case directly when he discusses the state of the war and Ukraine’s needs by video link to a regular meeting of EU foreign ministers, taking place in Luxembourg. EU diplomats say they expect him to do so.

Artillery rounds, particularly 155mm shells, have become critical to the conflict as Ukrainian and Russian forces wage an intense war of attrition. Officials say Kyiv is burning through more rounds than its allies can currently produce.

The joint procurement plan is part of a multi-track EU deal to get 1 million artillery shells or missiles to Ukraine within 12 months and ramp up European munitions production, approved by foreign ministers last month.

The first element is the most immediate. It sets aside 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) to reimburse EU governments for sending munitions to Ukraine from existing stocks.

EU officials pushed back against Kuleba’s criticism by stressing that this fast track is up and running so ammunition is already flowing to Kyiv.

But the second track, worth another 1 billion euros to fund joint procurement, has yet to be finalised.