CHECK – Has the EU delivered 4 to 5 times less ammunition to Ukraine than North Korea to Russia?

A fervent campaigner for major support for Ukraine, MEP Raphaël Glucksmann has warned France Inter listeners in recent days. “Every effort refused today will be very expensive tomorrow”warns the elected official, who took advantage of his appearance on the radio to highlight a striking comparison. “All of Europe supplied 4 or 5 times less ammunition to Ukraine than North Korea alone provided to Russia”he laments (new window) by relaying the extract from his speech on social networks.

A lack of European voluntarism all the more damaging in his eyes as the country led by Kim Jong-Un has a GDP approximately 650 times lower than that of the EU.

Less than a million shells delivered by the EU

To understand where the figure put forward by Raphaël Glucksmann comes from, we must look at the hearing of the new European Commissioner in charge of Defense, who presented himself on November 6 before the MEPs. On this occasion, Lithuanian Andrius Kubilis presented a roadmap and responded (new window) to a series of questions, including that asked by a certain Thomas Pellerin-Carlin.

The latter, elected to the European Parliament on the Place publique list carried by Raphaël Glucksmann, mentioned (new window) munitions deliveries from the EU to Ukraine, making a comparison with those made by Pyongyang for the benefit of Moscow. The ratio is believed to be even greater: around 14 times lower.

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Asked by TF1info, Raphaël Glucksmann’s entourage ensures that the two colleagues from Place publique refer to the same figures. They each evoke “155 mm shells”that’s to say “the missile ammunition most used by the Ukrainian and Russian armies”. A nuance compared to the comments made on France Inter, since mention was made of “munitions” in the broad sense, without further details.

In practice, Thomas Pellerin-Carlin made a comparison taking as a starting figure the number of shells delivered by the EU to Ukraine as of August 30. Compared to the nine million shells that would have been delivered by North Korea to Russia, we find here a proportion of 1 to 14. Those close to Raphaël Glucksmann recall that “the EU was only able to produce around 1.5 million shells and delivered some less than a million (new window) in kyiv”. Compared to the 6 to 9 million North Korean shells, we find a proportion close to the 4 to 5 mentioned on France Inter.

Be careful with figures relating to North Korea

On the side of Raphaël Glucksmann, we refer to the elements provided by “South Korean intelligence” when we talk about the deliveries made by Pyongyang. “The figures vary between 6 and 9 million”and it remains “necessarily complicated to know the precise volumes”.

Totally locked down, the country communicates no information about its aid to Russia, so much so that the South Korean services are the only ones to provide – at regular intervals – numerical estimates. While a quantity of more than 5 million shells was mentioned during the summer (new window)the most recent figures showed 8 to 9 million units (new window) delivered.

At the start of the school year, an American official also mentioned (new window) Pyongyang’s active support for the Russian regime, but without offering an estimate of the number of munitions. At most we learned that North Korea had sent “at least 16,500 containers of ammunition and related equipment to Russia since September 2023”. These South Korean and American estimates remain the only ones at our disposal today, which means we must relay them with caution.

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