Estonian Defense Minister Calls for Transfer of Entire Arms Stockpile to Ukraine

According to RT news agency on February 27, in an interview with The Guardian (UK), Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur proposed transferring all weapons from the country's reserves to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

“The top priority is to make a decision on how to take all the weapons from each country's reserves and send them to Ukraine,” Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said.

Europe is scrambling to increase its ammunition production capacity, amid severe shortages in Ukraine and growing uncertainty over further aid from the US, The Guardian added.

Citing a commentary by former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy Jim Townsend, now a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, The Guardian said that the West is having problems with increasing arms production for Ukraine.

“If we talk about the European defense industry, it is too small. The US has the same problem: the industry will not be able to produce the weapons Kiev needs on a large scale, even if it has the capital and political will. So it could take years to reach a consensus on the budget,” said Townsen.

According to The Guardian, although NATO countries are providing Ukraine with “increasing quantities of ammunition”, this cannot be done in the time frame and in the quantity “as many expected”.

Not only Estonia, Germany is also calling and searching for artillery shells for the Ukrainian Armed Forces around the world. According to Major General Christian Freuding - head of the Ukrainian support coordination group of the German Ministry of Defense, the Ministry has to find new ways to get artillery shells for Kiev every day.

Earlier, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Alexey Danilov said that the West should transfer all existing weapons and equipment to Kiev, because “Europe will no longer need guns, tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and much more for the next war”./.