Ahead of the meeting, Tusk upped the stakes in tweeting that that what Ukraine needs is “less talk and more ammo,” an apparent rebuke of Macron. The French president has adopted increasingly hawkish rhetoric and doubled down on comments about the prospect of sending Western ground troops to Ukraine, but Paris itself has been under fire for talking tough while lagging behind in terms of actual military aid donated to Kyiv.
In Berlin, Macron adopted a more conciliatory tone towards his allies, saying that the three countries were committed to support Ukraine for “as long as it takes” but “never to prompt an escalation.”
Scholz said the leaders agreed to buy shells for Ukraine on the global market, ramp up production and use windfall profits from frozen Russian assets to fund defense gear in the future — a shift from Berlin’s earlier stance, but it remains unclear how that would work in practice across the EU.
The commitments from Scholz could supercharge efforts to procure artillery shells for Ukraine in the midst of a supply crunch which has left Kyiv struggling to hold back Russia’s artillery bombardments.
A Czech scheme to finance the purchase of 800,000 artillery rounds on the global market has already gathered enough funding from a coalition of capitals to procure 300,000 shells and negotiate over a further 200,000. Portugal on Friday became the latest state to join with a €100 million contribution.
The German chancellor also said in Berlin that a new coalition of countries would team up to support Ukraine with long-range artillery capabilities within the so-called Ramstein format of countries which coordinates allied military aid to Ukraine.
Returning from a trip to Washington on Tuesday, Tusk said that “whatever happens” the leaders have a “responsibility for Europe” and “a strong Europe is important for Ukraine.”
