Brusells: As part of a push to arm Ukraine and replenish depleted arsenals, EU negotiators on Friday agreed to a plan to increase ammunition production within the bloc.

The Act in Support of Ammunition Production, or ASAP, which will cost $545 million (500 million euros), aims to increase the production of artillery shells and missiles.

Margarita Robles, the defence minister of Spain, which is presently in charge of rotating the EU presidency, stated that this is yet another demonstration of the EU's unwavering dedication to supporting Ukraine.

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As European allies struggle to maintain supplies for Ukraine's conflict with Russia, Brussels says it hopes to increase production capacity in the bloc to a million shells annually within the next 12 months.

The plan was quickly implemented after negotiations between EU member states and legislators.

The European Parliament and national governments must now give their final approval. The programme will give companies money to increase their production capacity.

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EU nations have also carried out a second, two billion euro plan to send a million shells from their stockpiles to Ukraine over the course of this year and buy ammunition jointly for Kiev.

The bloc has so far fallen far short of its goal of supplying Kyiv with a million howitzer shells.

In a gruelling counteroffensive, Ukrainian forces complain that they are running out of ammunition as they try to drive Russian troops out of occupied territory.

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The EU claims that since Russia's all-out invasion in February of last year, it has already given Kyiv weapons totaling about 15 billion euros.