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Borrell: Joint EU Arms Plan Will Work but Kyiv Needs Help Now

The European Commission's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell Fontelles speaks at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, southern Germany, on February 19, 2023. (AFP)
The European Commission's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell Fontelles speaks at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, southern Germany, on February 19, 2023. (AFP)
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Borrell: Joint EU Arms Plan Will Work but Kyiv Needs Help Now

The European Commission's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell Fontelles speaks at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, southern Germany, on February 19, 2023. (AFP)
The European Commission's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell Fontelles speaks at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, southern Germany, on February 19, 2023. (AFP)

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Sunday backed a call for the bloc's members to buy arms jointly to help Ukraine but warned it would not solve Kyiv's urgent need for more ammunition now.

Borrell was responding to an Estonian proposal for the EU to place large ammunition orders on behalf of multiple member states to speed up procurement and encourage European arms firms to invest in increasing their production capacities.

EU officials and diplomats say they are urgently exploring the possibility of joint procurement of 155 millimeter artillery shells to help Kyiv defend itself against Russia. EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss the Estonian plan in Brussels on Monday.

In a panel discussion with Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas in Munich on Sunday, Borrell said: "I completely agree with the Estonian prime minister's proposal, we are working on that and it will work."

But in a speech before the discussion, Borrell said joint procurement could only bear fruit in the medium term. Right now, Ukraine's supporters must quickly send supplies from existing stocks, he said.

"This shortage of ammunition needs to be solved quickly. It’s a matter of weeks," Borrell told the Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering of policymakers.

"This cannot be solved by going into joint procurement ... because any procurement that comes to the market will come at the end of a queue of a long list of orders already passed by the member states."

A major move into joint procurement of munitions would be a sign of greater EU integration, as arms-buying has so far largely been the preserve of the bloc's national governments.

Such a step would need the approval of EU member countries. Several have already indicated they are in favor but the position of others remains unclear.

Kallas told the Munich conference that Russia was firing as many artillery shells in a day as Europe produces in a month.

But she said European defense industry leaders had told her they had yet to receive orders big enough to boost production or invest in increased capacity.

She suggested some European countries were wrongly assuming that the need for more ammunition was a short-term issue.

"It seems to me that some of the countries are still in the hope that it will go away," she said.

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CIA Chief Told Lawmakers Iran Nuclear Program Set Back Years with Strikes on Metal Conversion Site

This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows overview of Fordo enrichment facility in Iran, on June 29, 2025. (Maxar Technologies via AP)
This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows overview of Fordo enrichment facility in Iran, on June 29, 2025. (Maxar Technologies via AP)
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CIA Chief Told Lawmakers Iran Nuclear Program Set Back Years with Strikes on Metal Conversion Site

This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows overview of Fordo enrichment facility in Iran, on June 29, 2025. (Maxar Technologies via AP)
This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows overview of Fordo enrichment facility in Iran, on June 29, 2025. (Maxar Technologies via AP)

CIA Director John Ratcliffe told skeptical US lawmakers that American military strikes destroyed Iran's lone metal conversion facility and in the process delivered a monumental setback to Tehran’s nuclear program that would take years to overcome, a US official said Sunday.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive intelligence, said Ratcliffe laid out the importance of the strikes on the metal conversion facility during a classified hearing for US lawmakers last week.

Details about the private briefings surfaced as President Donald Trump and his administration keep pushing back on questions from Democratic lawmakers and others about how far Iran was set back by the strikes before last Tuesday’s ceasefire with Israel took hold.

“It was obliterating like nobody’s ever seen before,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” “And that meant the end to their nuclear ambitions, at least for a period of time.”

Ratcliffe also told lawmakers that the intelligence community assessed the vast majority of Iran's amassed enriched uranium likely remains buried under the rubble at Isfahan and Fordo, two of the three key nuclear facilities targeted by US strikes.

But even if the uranium remains intact, the loss of its metal conversion facility effectively has taken away Tehran's ability to build a bomb for years to come, the official said.

Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Sunday on CBS' “Face the Nation” that the three Iranian sites with “capabilities in terms of treatment, conversion and enrichment of uranium have been destroyed to an important degree.”

But, he added, “some is still standing” and that because capabilities remain, “if they so wish, they will be able to start doing this again.” He said assessing the full damage comes down to Iran allowing in inspectors.

"Frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared, and there is nothing there," Grossi said.

Trump has insisted from just hours after three key targets were struck by US bunker-buster bombs and Tomahawk missiles that Iran's nuclear program was “obliterated.”

His defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has said they were “destroyed.” A preliminary report issued by the US Defense Intelligence Agency, meanwhile, said the strikes did significant damage to the Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan sites, but did not totally destroy the facilities.

As a result of Israeli and US strikes, Grossi says that “it is clear that there has been severe damage, but it’s not total damage." Israel claims it has set back Iran’s nuclear program by “many years.”

The metal conversion facility that Ratcliffe said was destroyed was located at the Isfahan nuclear facility. The process of transforming enriched uranium gas into dense metal, or metallization, is a key step in building the explosive core of a bomb.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio in comments at the NATO summit last week also suggested that it was likely the US strikes had destroyed the metal conversion facility.

“You can’t do a nuclear weapon without a conversion facility," Rubio said. "We can’t even find where it is, where it used to be on the map. You can’t even find where it used to be because the whole thing is just blackened out. It’s gone. It’s wiped out.”

The CIA director also stressed to lawmakers during the congressional briefing that Iran’s air defense was shattered during the 12-day assault. As a result, any attempt by Iran to rebuild its nuclear program could now easily be thwarted by Israeli strikes that Iran currently has little wherewithal to defend against, the official said.

Ratcliffe's briefing to lawmakers on the US findings appeared to mesh with some of Israeli officials' battle damage assessments.

Israeli officials have determined that Iran's ability to enrich uranium to a weapons-grade level was neutralized for a prolonged period, according to a senior Israeli military official who was not authorized to talk publicly about the matter.

Tehran's nuclear program also was significantly damaged by the strikes killing key scientists, damage to Iran's missile production industry and the battering of Iran's aerial defense system, according to the Israeli's assessment.

Grossi, and some Democrats, note that Iran still has the know-how.

“You cannot undo the knowledge that you have or the capacities that you have,” Grossi said, emphasizing the need to come to a diplomatic deal on the country's nuclear program.