France blocks supply of ammunition to Ukraine - Polish media

France has become the only EU country to block the allocation of EU funds for the purchase of ammunition for Ukraine.

Source. This was reported by the Polish agency Polska Agencja Prasowa.

France is blocking the unanimous decision of the EU countries to supply Ukraine with ammunition.

It is planned to spend 2 billion euros to finance the project, which France opposed. Half of the amount was supposed to be sent to the EU countries themselves to reimburse the cost of supplies to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

However, European warehouses are short of shells, so the EU needed to buy them from other countries. France opposed this idea, the agency writes.

The second billion of this amount was to be allocated to orders for the production of ammunition in the EU. However, France rejected this idea.

"The draft contained a provision stating that the reimbursement of ammunition should be made only on the basis of a request from Ukraine. Paris, however, wants to exclude this provision without explaining the reasons... France also wants to add the possibility of reimbursement for missiles," the source said.

According to some European diplomats, lobbying by arms companies may be behind France's position.

"We are talking about creating a mechanism to force the ordering of specific equipment that the Ukrainian side may not actually need," said an EU diplomat.

Warsaw, according to Poland's permanent representative to the EU, will never agree to any reimbursement for equipment or ammunition that Ukraine has not requested.

Negotiations on this issue are ongoing.

Background. Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron visited Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, after which the French leader said that the European Union should distance itself from the United States and its conflict with China.