European Union leaders at a summit in Brussels said today that they are ready to support a plan to send one million artillery pieces to Ukraine over the next 12 months to help the country counter Russian forces.

The news was announced by several senior diplomats of the European Union, emphasizing that the ministers of foreign affairs and defense of the EU earlier this week approved the plan for an accelerated procedure for the purchase, and the leaders of the 27 member states of the Union will make the final decision at the summit in Brussels, the American media reported.

After more than a year of intense fighting, Ukraine faced a shortage of ammunition, the Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Callas last month floated the idea of ​​the EU adopting a joint ammunition procurement plan similar to the one devised during the coronavirus pandemic to buy vaccines.

"Ukraine's most urgent need is to send ammunition quickly, because that can bring about a change in this war," Kalas said.

According to the plan, the European Defense Agency will respond to member states' requests for replenishment of stocks in parallel with deliveries and lead a fast-track procedure for direct negotiations with suppliers to the ammunition industry in Europe.

"When we have this joint procurement, the defense industry will have orders and the opportunity to double its production, because it has not done it before," said Callas.

According to various estimates, Ukraine fires 6.000-7.000 artillery shells per day, which is only about a third of the total fired by Russia.