On Saturday a top NATO official has warned ammunition prices “are shooting up” which means this could set back efforts to bring security in Ukraine.
Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, the chair of NATO’s military committee has said that private investment from defence companies is required.
Bauer said that long term security must prevail over “short term profits” private investment in the private sector will ramp up the capacity for more ammunition for Ukraine.
Bauer said after a meeting of the alliance’s chiefs of defence in Oslo, “Prices for equipment and ammunition are shooting up. Right now, we are paying more and more for exactly the same.
Read more on Russia-Ukraine war:
Footage shows Russia firing on their own troops as they surrender with ‘one captured in pieces’
“That means that we cannot make sure that the increased defence spending actually leads to more security.”
Ukrainian forces are using around 10,000 155mm artillery shells which is a major concern as there is a shortage of the ammunition.
NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg previously warned that Ukraine are going through the shells faster than the West can replace them.
Bauer said, “Long term stability needs to prevail over short term profits. As we have seen in Ukraine, war is a whole of society event.
“40% of the (Ukrainian) economy evaporated in the first days of the war, that was private money to a large extent, that money is gone.”
The other issue facing NATO and Western allies is that Stoltenberg warned on Sunday they must “prepare for a long war” because most wars last longer than expected.
Stoltenberg told Germany’s Funke media group in an interview “eventually” Ukraine will join the alliance.
The NATO chief said, “Most wars last longer than expected when they first begin.
