ATHENS

Five prominent European leaders on Wednesday urged a united effort to arm the besieged country of Ukraine for the long-term.

“Ukraine has insufficient amounts of artillery ammunition. And commitments for military support risk falling short of Ukraine’s needs,” wrote German Chancellor Olof Scholz, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas in a joint op-ed for The Financial Times.

Citing the EU’s promise last year to supply 1 million artillery shells to Ukraine by this March, they stressed: “We can’t just give up on our promise. If Ukrainian soldiers are to keep up the fight, the need for ammunition is overwhelming. And the EU member states’ delivery of arms and ammunition to Ukraine is more important than ever.”

Against this backdrop, they added, the union should redouble its efforts to sustain support as long as it takes.

“What is urgent today is to provide the ammunition and weapon systems, including howitzers, tanks, UAVs and air defence, that Ukraine so urgently needs on the ground,” they stressed.

After a failure to make progress on the battlefield last year and with support from the US in sharp doubt, Ukraine may need more help from Europe than ever to fight off the war Russia launched in February 2022, nearly two years ago.