This Saturday, a day after the signing of a bilateral security agreement between Germany and Ukraine, the German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall announced an agreement with a Ukrainian company to create a joint venture to build artillery ammunition in Ukraine, which the country is in urgent need of of the Russian armed forces. Goal: To produce a “six-digit number” of 155 mm caliber grenades annually, including the associated propellants. For security reasons, neither the name of the Ukrainian partner nor the location of the future factory nor the start date of production were disclosed.*
joint venture
The joint venture, which is 51 percent owned by Rheinmetall and 49 percent by the Ukrainian partner, will make a “significant contribution to Ukraine’s defense capability and thus serve security in Europe,” explained Rheinmetall boss Armin Papperger. According to him, current projects with Ukraine amount to “several billion euros, and their number is increasing almost every day.”
This is the second joint venture for Rheinmetall in Ukraine, after a joint venture was signed last October with the Ukrainian joint stock company UDI, formerly Ukroboronprom, which is dedicated to the repair of military vehicles and represents the first step towards manufacturing them directly on site.
Produce up to 700,000 artillery shells per year in 2025
Last Monday, the groundbreaking ceremony for a future ammunition factory in Rheinmetall's most important defense industrial complex in Germany, in Unterlüß (North), also took place in the presence of Chancellor Olaf Scholz. This unit will produce 155-millimeter artillery ammunition, standard NATO artillery ammunition used in many cannons and howitzers, starting in 2025, and is gradually targeting a capacity of 200,000 shells per year. In total, Rheinmetall wants to produce up to 700,000 artillery shells per year at all locations in Europe in 2025; this year it will be 400 to 500,000. Only 70,000 examples were produced before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Despite the billions of euros in weapons that EU countries have delivered to Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion, they are still far from achieving sufficient capacity to sustainably support the country and rebuild their own stocks. Germany has long been a bad example, Olaf Scholz recently admitted, because arms policy is “run like buying a car,” while the defense industries need planning in order to invest in new capabilities in the long term.
In the future, “thanks to a union of European partners, the USA would like to produce one million shells per year, Europe two to three million,” Armin Papperger recently explained. By the end of March, the Europeans will have provided only half of the million shells promised to Ukraine last year.
The Rheinmetall complex in Unterlüß is already producing 120 mm shells for Leopard 2 tanks used on the Ukrainian front. From 60,000 parts produced per year before 2022, the rate has increased to 240,000. However, with thousands of shots being fired every day, Ukrainian troops must urgently try to repel the Russian invasion. And the armies of European countries have to fill their own gaps. After years of underinvestment, the Bundeswehr's stocks are empty and its ammunition needs are estimated by Rheinmetall at around 40 billion euros.
Zelensky's appeal
The announcement came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made an urgent appeal on Saturday to his Western allies to deliver more military equipment to the country, with a focus on long-range weapons, following one of Russia's most successful victories in eastern Ukraine. Although the leader was stunned by the army's forced withdrawal from the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka announced overnight, he kept it quiet during his speech on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference in Germany.
But his message is clear: “Our actions are limited only by the quantity and scope of the reach of our armed forces – which does not depend on us,” he told officials gathered for this high mass of world diplomacy as Ukraine took office Enters the third year of the war.
“We can get our country back. And Putin could lose. “This has happened more than once on the battlefield,” he argued.
He complained that Ukraine “is kept in a deficit of artificial weapons, especially artillery and long-range capabilities.” This deficiency “allows Putin to adapt to the current intensity of the war.” Kiev has been demanding for months from its allies long-range weapons that can hit Russian troops more deeply.
A problem that Chancellor Olaf Scholz carefully avoided on Saturday. “Step by step, we always decide what is right at the right time,” he replied, meaning that the delivery of these weapons was not on the agenda.
Kyiv wants Taurus
Kiev wants Berlin to equip it with Taurus, one of the German Air Force's most modern and effective missiles. The federal government is hesitant because it fears that Russian territory could also be affected by these precision weapons and that the conflict could escalate. Olaf Scholz recalled that Germany – the second largest contributor after the USA in terms of absolute value – is an important supporter of Ukraine's defense and has just proven this again by signing a long-term bilateral security agreement on Friday. Help for Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelensky signed a similar document with France during a trip to Paris, where Emmanuel Macron also promised Kiev “up to three billion euros” in “additional” military aid this year.
Germany has budgeted seven billion to support Ukraine in 2024, including a new package of arms supplies worth 1.1 billion euros presented on Friday. But in the USA the situation is still deadlocked: Kiev has been hoping for months for a vote on the crucial aid of around 60 billion dollars, which was decided by the government of Joe Biden and hampered by a Republican opposition under the influence of Donald Trump becomes. American Vice President Kamala Harris tried to reassure Volodymyr Zelensky during interviews in Munich, where she had met him two years ago, “five days before the Russian invasion,” she said.
As for aid to Ukraine, “there is bipartisan support. (…) we are unshakable. And that has nothing to do with an election cycle,” said Kamala Harris, who warned of “political games” in the middle of the November presidential election campaign in the US.
American aid is “vital”
The Ukrainian president described the outstanding American aid as “vital.” His European trip was overshadowed by the announcement of the prison death of Alexei Navalny, Vladimir Putin's main opponent, further dashing any hope for openness in Moscow. While Ukraine is once again the focus of debate at the Munich conference, participants are also concerned with the deadly conflict between Israel and Hamas, the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip and the threat of escalation in the Middle East. Complex ceasefire negotiations are underway, including the further release of Hamas hostages and Palestinians held by Israel. Qatar's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdelrahmane Al-Thani, whose country is one of the main mediators in negotiations for the release of the hostages, is scheduled to speak on Saturday.