Putin's Russia is a threat: Scholz calls for increased arms production in Europe

Given the threat from Russia, Europe must significantly increase its arms production. European partners should combine their orders and guarantee the defense industry work for the next few decades.

This was stated by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the ceremony of launching the construction of a new ammunition plant for the defense company Rheinmetall on Monday, February 12, the German edition Stern reported. He called on European countries to step up their efforts to produce weapons.

"We must move to large-scale arms production," Scholz said.

The German Chancellor emphasized that this should be done urgently because "we do not live in times of peace".

According to him, Russia's aggressive war in Ukraine and Russia's imperial ambitions, openly expressed by President Vladimir Putin, are "the main threat to the European peace order."

Scholz made the comments on the occasion of the groundbreaking ceremony for Rheinmetall's new munitions plant in Unterlüss, Lower Saxony. The plant is expected to produce 200,000 artillery shells annually.

He noted that the production of this many shells is an impressive figure.

"On the other hand, we know that several thousand artillery shells are being used at the frontline - in the east and south of Ukraine - every day," Scholz said.

The German Chancellor emphasized that Ukraine is now deciding "whether our peaceful order, our rules-based world, has a future."

"Russia must fail in its attempt to annex a neighboring state by force. Not only the United States but also European countries need to do more to support Ukraine. The commitments made so far are simply not enough," the chancellor emphasized.

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