Germany and France said they would start producing weapons inside Ukraine as the leaders of the European Union’s two largest economies tried to move past concerns that their differences would hinder the bloc from mobilizing sufficient support for Kyiv.
The announcement from German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday, however, will do little to address Ukraine’s most pressing need: getting Kyiv enough ammunition in the short term to ward off the advances of Russian troops, whose average daily shell use can be anywhere from three to five times what Ukrainian forces can fire.
Nor will it assuage concerns that Europe’s leaders as a collective are still struggling to grasp the magnitude of the threat they face. Macron’s rhetoric has turned more dire in recent days, but he’s so far failed to persuade Scholz to endorse such a bleak analysis.