Finnish Defence Minister Antti Häkkinen has said that Finland will soon start producing artillery ammunition for Ukraine.

"We have completed negotiations on how Finland will further increase the production of artillery ammunition for Ukraine. This decision will be made very soon.

We have announced a plan to significantly increase the production of ammunition. We intend to support Ukraine even more than we do now. 

At the same time, we will further increase the readiness of Finland and the Nordic countries to produce ammunition," Häkkinen said in an interview with Iltalehti.

Häkkinen said that the decision to start producing ammunition for Ukraine is likely to be made before Christmas.

German arms company Rheinmetall won a large order for 155mm artillery ammunition for Ukraine; the customer is an unnamed NATO country.

Earlier, the European Commission called on EU countries to put pressure on the defence industry to increase production of shells for Ukraine.