2023-02-18 12:26 update: 2023-02-21, 15:09
Photo PAP/Mateusz Marek
Poland has backed Estonia's idea to form a coalition of countries that would provide ammunition for Ukraine, the Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, has said.
Morawiecki and the Polish president, Andrzej Duda, attended the Munich Security Conference on Friday and Saturday.
Morawiecki said he had talked to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, about the initiative.
"We've talked with President von der Leyen about ammunition production projects," he said. "The issue was raised at the recent European Council meeting in Brussels, but some countries, and I don't want to point fingers, did not react positively to that."
He said he was pleased that von der Leyen was interested in the idea, calling her "an advocate of support for Ukraine.
"At the same time we've been building a coalition of countries - and I've talked about it with the Estonian prime minister, because she's been raising the issue - that would be ready to manufacture ammunition together, to finance or co-finance the production of as much ammunition as possible," Morawiecki said, adding that shortages of ammunition were currently the main problem for Ukraine.
At the European Council meeting "only a few" EU leaders supported the initiative, he said. "Today more and more and countries agree to do that," he added, explaining that about half of EU member states supported the scheme.
At the Council meeting on February 9, Estonia called for a EUR 4 billion investment in a million rounds of ammunition that Ukraine needed to fend of the Russian invasion. (PAP)
