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Brussels is conducting an audit of how much weaponry EU member states have provided to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country, in response to claims that some capitals have failed to send as much as they could.
Western military and financial aid to Ukraine has dwindled in recent months, restricting Kyiv’s ability to defend against Russia’s attacks and launch counteroffensive operations and sparking concern that willingness to help Ukraine is ebbing after almost two years of war.
The audit comes as Brussels and Washington are struggling to find political consensus that would allow them to sign off on new financial aid packages to Kyiv together worth about $110bn.
Bipartisan divisions in the US Congress have prevented the passing of a funding package for Ukraine worth more than $60bn proposed by President Joe Biden. The money is required to continue US military shipments to Kyiv.
The EU’s diplomatic service, the External Action Service (EEAS), is conducting the audit of weapons supplied by member states since Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022, three EU diplomats briefed on the plans told the FT. The EEAS aims to present the findings to capitals before a summit of EU leaders on February 1.
The audit will rely on submissions from member states in response to requests from the EEAS — which has already met resistance from some countries reluctant to provide complete data, according to one of the diplomats.
The decision to conduct the audit follows a demand from German Chancellor Olaf Scholz last week that countries’ military deliveries to Kyiv be tallied up and compared. “The arms deliveries for Ukraine planned so far by the majority of EU member states are too small,” he argued.
“We [also] need an overview of what concrete contribution our European partners will make to support Ukraine this year,” Scholz told reporters last Monday.
His comments echoed private remarks made by officials from other EU countries over the scale of military supplies being promised by fellow member states.
Germany has made the EU’s biggest arms pledges by far in terms of value, according to research by the Kiel Institute for The World Economy. At more than €17bn up to October 31 last year, its commitments are worth about five times the value of Denmark’s, the next biggest contributor.
While Scholz’s remarks have been interpreted as a rebuke to other large EU states such as France and Italy whose military pledges are far smaller, his public call for greater transparency was privately backed by senior officials in Brussels who believe some states could provide more weapons to Kyiv at a critical moment in the conflict.
Some EU countries other than Germany, particularly in the east of the bloc, are also pushing for the expansion of the European Peace Facility (EPF), a joint fund that part-finances weapons shipments to Ukraine, to boost supplies and share the cost burden.
The EPF, which funds defence-related projects in third counties, has not been bolstered since June 2023, and the bloc’s 27 member states have failed to agree on a move to create a dedicated €5bn per year portion for Ukraine.
“We have to make sure that [the EPF] is back on track and we can use it again for further tranches of support for Ukraine,” said a senior EU diplomat. Without the EPF, “some member states . . . will not give any military support”.
Most member states were “very concerned about getting as much [military aid] as possible to Ukraine in these critical months, [to] the front where you see critical developments”, the diplomat added.
