“New packages will arrive next year (0.25% of Estonia’s GDP), Hanno Pevkur noted”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
“I met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyi and confirmed our constant military support for Ukraine. On the way to his Office, I also electronically signed a new military aid package with clothing, small arms, etc. New packages will arrive next year (0.25% of Estonia’s GDP),” the Estonian Defense Minister emphasized.
In his turn, Zelenskyy said that during the meeting he thanked Pevkur for the new package and the decision to allocate 0.25% of GDP per year to help Ukraine.
He recalled that “recently, Shahed hit the building where the Estonian ambassador to Ukraine lives.” And this is another sign that the pressure on Russia needs to be increased to limit its military production.”
“We separately discussed the possibilities of the Estonian side to finance the production of long-range drones in Ukraine and our urgent defense needs and help to equip new brigades,” Zelenskyy added.
In March 2023, the European Union promised to provide Ukraine with one million artillery shells within 12 months.
At the end of January 2024, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, announced that the countries of the European Union had handed Ukraine only 330,000 shells out of the promised million.
At the beginning of this year, in a letter to the heads of the military departments of the European Union, Defense Minister Rustem Umyerov admitted that Ukraine is experiencing a “critical” shortage of artillery shells. He explained that the Armed Forces can release no more than two thousand shells per day on the front line, which is one and a half thousand kilometers long. This is three times less shells than Russia uses.
Estonia allocates a record part of its GDP among all Ukrainian partners to support Ukraine.