NATO signed on Tuesday $1.2 billion in contracts to acquire about 220,000 155-millimeter artillery shells as part of support for Ukraine.

The deals were signed with France’s Nexter and German company Junghans Microtec but the deliveries will not begin until the end of 2025.

NATO completed a deal in December 2023 to purchase 1,000 Patriot air defense missiles but the European Union has so far been unable to complete a goal to provide Ukraine with a million artillery shells by March.

Ukraine was spending 4,000 to 7,000 artillery shells daily last summer and Russia was discharging about 20,000, EU estimates state.

The bloc began an effort in 2023 to boost defense production and has signed $10 billion in contracts for ammunition.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Ukraine’s backers will assist Kyiv “with the systems and the weapons and ammunition they need to prevail as a sovereign, independent country."

“This is important to defend our own territory, to build up our own stocks, but also to continue to support Ukraine,” he added.