The German concern Rheinmetall wants to provide Ukraine with a significant amount of artillery ammunition and announced plans to produce up to 600,000 shells per year.

Rheinmetall is already the largest Western manufacturer of ammunition/ It can currently produce 450,000 artillery shells per year, 350,000 of them at factories in Europe.

"We can expand our production up to 600,000-700,000 pieces of artillery ammunition a year," said Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger in an interview with Handelsblatt.

He point out that it will take some time to expand production of artillery shells. Papperger estimates its value at 200-250 million euros.

On May 3, after weeks of disputes, the EU agreed on a scheme for the joint purchase of ammunition for Ukraine (Ukr) for 1 billion euros.

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