Germany offers to produce 250,000 shells for Ukraine 

The German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports.

The publication says that the proposal to produce such a number of shells for Ukraine was made at a meeting of arms company directors this week.

It is noted that Rheinmetall, a Düsseldorf-based arms manufacturer, will be responsible for the production of ammunition.

An anonymous representative of the concern told the publication that the company can currently produce 450,000 artillery shells a year, 350,000 of which are produced at plants in Europe.

According to him, Rheinmetall plans to increase the production of artillery ammunition to about 600,000 shells per year in the future.

• On March 20, the Council of the European Union approved a plan to supply Ukraine with one million artillery shells in 12 months. The plan consists of three stages. At the first stage, EU member states will provide Kyiv with shells from their stockpiles, receiving compensation from the European Peace Facility - a total of 1 billion euros will be allocated for this purpose. At the second stage, the same amount of money will be allocated to sign contracts with artillery ammunition manufacturers, and then the EU states will expand their own production capacity.

• On April 6, EU countries agreed to deliver shells from warehouses, while details of ordering new ones are still being discussed.

• On April 13, the EU Council approved the allocation of 1 billion euros from the European Peace Facility to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces, including providing them with ammunition.

• On April 23, it was reported that the EU countries are "very close" to jointly ordering ammunition for Ukraine: it will arrive by the deadline.