Reuters: EU orders only 60,000 rounds for Ukraine under its million-shells scheme.

EU members have so far placed orders for only 60,000 artillery shells under the bloc's scheme to supply Ukraine with 1 million rounds by March, Reuters reported on Dec.

6, citing undisclosed sources. European and Ukrainian officials acknowledged in November that the EU is behind schedule with its shell deliveries, just as Russia is ramping up defense production and securing ammunition from its partners. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Nov.

30 that 480,000 artillery shells "have been either delivered (to Ukraine) or are on the pipeline." As EU countries delivered some 300,000 shells and missiles from its stocks, the next step of the scheme lies in jointly procuring additional munition through contracts negotiated by the bloc's European Defence Agency (EDA). The EDA said in September that seven countries had ordered ammunition via this scheme.

Lithuania, Denmark, and Luxembourg said they were among this group. Other munitions had been ordered in contracts under the leadership of one lead nation, like Germany. According to Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, the delays are connected to a poor state of the European defense industry.

Micael Johannson, the vice-chariman of the ASD defense lobby group, said that Europe is facing a real challenge to "restart production of ammunition and weapons systems that we haven't done for a very long time." In turn, defense industry representatives called on the governments for more firm orders rather than just targets.

Investigation: EU inability to ramp up production behind acute ammunition shortages in Ukraine Editor's note: This investigation is a collaboration between the Kyiv Independent and partners, including The Investigative Desk, Lighthouse Reports, and Follow the Money (Netherlands), El Diario (Spain), Delfi (Estonia), and Liberation (France).

Key findings: * Over a year into Russia's full-sca...