Poland's government has adopted a resolution to increase ammunition production and wants to allocate 2 billion zlotys ($463.32 million) for such investments, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Wednesday, as Ukraine's allies seek to increase supplies.
"I encourage private companies, state companies, foreign entities ... to quickly take up the challenge to create new ammunition production plants on Polish territory," Mateusz Morawiecki told a news conference.
"We want to allocate 2 billion zlotys ($463.32 million) for investments from the budget," he said, adding the government is also spending about 12 billion zlotys to order 800,000 rounds of ammunition.
Seventeen EU member states and Norway last week agreed to jointly procure ammunition to help Ukraine and to replenish their own stockpiles, the European Defence Agency said.
"We have almost complete knowledge of how much artillery ammunition is being used daily, weekly, monthly on the battlefield. These amounts are many times greater than the vast majority of NATO countries have today and which they could either make available to Ukraine or build themselves, rebuilding their stocks for potential wartime needs," Morawiecki added. "Because if you want peace, prepare for war," he stressed.
Ukrainian and Western leaders have warned in recent weeks that Kyiv is burning through the shells more quickly than its allies can provide them, leading to a renewed push to send supplies and find ways to ramp up production.
"That's why today we approved a program that encourages private entities, state-owned companies, and also foreign entities, which will be checked and verified by our services, to quickly take up this challenge, so that new ammunition production plants will be built on the territory of the Republic of Poland," Poland's PM said.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters