The EU and Britain will buy shells worth billions of euros for Ukraine, and Spain is preparing a new aid package.

Britain will invest £245M (€286M) over a year to provide artillery shells for Ukraine. The signing of a series of million-dollar contracts has also been reported; the contracts are with the British Cook Defense Systems to purchase hundreds of tracked spare parts to repair Ukrainian tanks and other armored vehicles.

In their turn, the EU allies are in a hurry to collect $1.5B in the form of emergency financing to purchase artillery shells for Ukraine from outside the bloc. Some EU members have already made their contribution, the FT writes.

The Czech Republic is leading the initiative to arm Ukraine against the background of a delay in aid from the US and the inability to agree on the expansion of the European Peace Fund.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba announced that the EU plans to deliver almost 170,000 artillery shells to Ukraine by the end of March and is working on further increasing the volume of supplies.

He also noted that Spain is preparing a new package of military aid, which will include ammunition.