European Union countries are to invest about 4 billion euros to jointly procure the 1 million rounds of ammunition that Ukraine needs this year to repel a Russian invasion.

Estonia sent a corresponding proposal to the bloc’s member states, reports Bloomberg.

Estonia claims that Russia currently produces as much ammunition in Ukraine in one day as Europe can produce in a month. Therefore, the EU urgently needs to increase its defence and industrial capacity to help the Ukrainian military sustain the fight.

"We must make an extraordinary effort toward rapid decision-making and implementation of the initiative, as soon as possible, already in 2023 – this is what the severity of Ukraine’s situation requires. The price of any delay is very high, and it is going up each day," the document says.

The plan would allow Europe’s industry to increase its capacity as much as seven-fold and to produce over the next six months the 1 million 155mm shells Ukraine has pleaded for.

The additional €4 billion to jointly purchase the munitions could be bolted on to the EU’s existing European Peace Facility, currently used to refund nations for their military support to Ukraine.

Estonia indicates in the document that Ukraine currently uses on average between 60,000 and as many as 210,000 rounds of ammunition per month, but the European defense industry only has the capacity to produce as many as 25,000 shells in the same time frame, Estonia says in the paper, adding it would currently take as long as four years to meet Kyiv’s needs. Meanwhile, Russia is firing around 20,000-60,000 shells a day.

NATO countries are seeking to boost production capacity and have agreed to raise stockpiling guidelines for ammunition to better plan for a potential future conflict.

As reported, the United States concluded contracts (UKR) with two manufacturers for producing shells for 155 mm howitzers in order to cover the needs of Ukraine.