The two figures illustrate the brutality of the war. And the balance of power on the battlefields. Russian soldiers fire more than 20,000 shells from their howitzers every day. At least. The Ukrainian army – forced to exercise restraint because many of its arms factories and ammunition depots are in ruins – fires around 2,000. That’s ten times less. This is how officials of the EU Commission in Brussels calculate it.

Now the EU wants to increase Ukraine’s firepower.