<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>The EU has supplied Ukraine with over 200,000 artillery shells and 1,000 missiles under a plan to rush urgently needed ammunition to Kyiv, the bloc's foreign policy chief said Tuesday.</b></span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The European Union has agreed to spend two billion euros (around $2.2 billion) from its common funds to try to get a million rounds of artillery ammunition to Ukraine over twelve months.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said so far "220,000 artillery munitions of different calibre and 1,300 missiles have been provided" to Kyiv under the scheme.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ukraine's international backers are scrambling to deliver ammunition as Kyiv's forces gear up for a promised counter-offensive to push back Moscow's troops.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The EU plan provides a first billion euros to get member states to send ammunition urgently from their existing stockpiles.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The money is intended to reimburse the partial cost of ammunition provided from 9 February to 31 May 2023.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The second billion from EU funds will go towards covering joint procurement contracts signed by the bloc's member states for 155-millimetre shells by the end of September.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">EU officials have batted away major doubts over the ability of the European defence industry to manufacture that number of shells.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Brussels has proposed a package of financing to help companies increase their production capacity. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>