British media pointed out that the European defense industry is facing a shortage of gunpowder, plastic explosives and TNT explosives, and cannot quickly meet the EU's supply of ammunition to Ukraine.

Pictured are shells used by Ukrainian troops on the front lines (Reuters)

[Instant News/Comprehensive Report] As the Ukrainian-Russian war continues, in addition to aiding Ukrainian armaments, various ammunition is also an important part. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov called on the EU to provide monthly 250,000 rounds of shells eased the shortage of ammunition for the Ukrainian army.

However, some British media reports pointed out that the current European defense industry is facing a shortage of gunpowder, plastic explosives and TNT explosives, and cannot quickly meet the EU's ammunition supply to Ukraine.

According to a report by the British "Financial Times", due to the shortage of explosives and the inability to increase production capacity, the supply of ammunition to Ukraine will be hindered.

A German official revealed that the fundamental problem at present is that the European defense industry is not suitable for large-scale war production.

EU officials and manufacturers have warned that increased demand will only continue to drive up manufacturing costs.

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The Spanish artillery manufacturer "Fábrica Municiones de Granada" (FMG), a subsidiary of the Slovakian military enterprise MSM Group, has been fully open since October last year. Antonio Caro, director general of FMG, said that the main problem at present is the shortage of raw materials. There are not many factories producing gunpowder raw materials and now have to source them from India, South Korea or other countries.

The cost of base materials doubled, and in some cases even tripled, increasing costs, surging demand, and ultimately driving up the price of ammunition.

Jiří Hynek, chairman of the Czech Defense Security Industry Association, said: "It is difficult to increase the production of artillery ammunition, especially heavy large-caliber ammunition, in a short period of time. It is very simple to build a new artillery factory, but how to produce it without raw materials is even more difficult. How many shells?" A European defense official pointed out that the supply of raw materials such as gunpowder and TNT in Europe is limited, and these are all necessary raw materials for the production of shells. "The bottleneck of production capacity is mainly gunpowder powder. If we want to increase production, it may take three years ".

One of the largest explosives manufacturers in Europe, the Czech state-owned military enterprise "Explosia", revealed that the company's powder production line for 155mm shells is running at full capacity, and production will not increase until 2026.

"Explosia" stated that investment to strengthen production capacity is currently underway, but this is a 3-year long-term plan, not something that can be completed in a few months.