The European External Action Service has revealed this week that the EU will likely miss its shell delivery deadline, Bloomberg reported citing sources familiar with the matter.
According to the media outlet, the European powers have so far managed to deliver only 30 percent of the intended amount of shells to Kiev.
The reason for this apparent failure is the EU's industries’ inability to “deliver as much shell as was promised to Ukraine,” said Jacques Sapir, director of studies at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris.
“There are several reasons behind that. The main one is the collapse of industry in EU countries. You can also add the lack of chemicals, needed for explosives and powder. Bottom line, it was a promise that the EU could not fulfill,” he told Sputnik.
According to Sapir, the whole shell delivery scheme apparently stemmed from the EU leaders’ belief that “money always translates into material artifact” and ignored the simple fact that you need sufficient industrial capacity to do so.
“They discovered after that the EU doesn’t have capabilities to produce and deliver a large amount of military hardware anymore,” Sapir said.
“Another possible reason is the fact that EU leaders wanted to show how much they were committed to Ukraine sides and played more public relations than actual politics,” he added.
Sapir added that not only Europe cannot produce enough shells to complete the aforementioned delivery scheme, it also “can’t find additional production facilities in other countries.”
“They spoke also about building new factories. But, here again it will take time, between 18 to 24 months before these new factories could begin delivering. So far nothing more could be done,” Sapir said.
With Ukraine’s domestic military-industrial capabilities being devastated by this point, the regime in Kiev now finds itself reliant on military assistance provided by the United States and its EU allies.