Australia and France will work together to manufacture ammunition to supply Ukraine as the two countries move past the submarine row from the Morrison era.

Defence and foreign ministers from both nations on Tuesday morning (Australian time) announced plans to jointly make “several thousand” 155-millimetre artillery shells in coming weeks.

Australia would supply the powder and French manufacturer Nexter would lead the development of the ammunition.

It was hoped the much-needed firepower could start being delivered to Ukraine in the first quarter of this year.

The plan was unveiled in Paris during a visit by Defence Minister Richard Marles and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong for the first joint high-level talks since the submarine row erupted.

“It is the first time that our consultations have taken place at this level — in the so-called 2+2 format – since an incident I shall not come back to,” said French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna.

Mr Marles said the two countries would join forces “to make sure Ukraine is able to stay in this conflict and see it concluded on its own terms,” said Mr Marles.

“It represents a novel co-operation between Australian and French defence industry,” said Mr Marles.

“There are actually complementarities between our defence industrial bases, which allows this to happen.

“But it’s also true that we wanted to act together as a statement about how importantly Australia and France regard the support of Ukraine in the current conflict.”

France’s Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu said they hoped to secure a steady supply of shells to Ukraine.

“This partnership will allow us over time, over the coming weeks and months, to assist Ukraine,” Mr Lecornu said.

It comes as the Kremlin reaffirmed its stance on Monday (local time) that further supplies of Western weaponry to Ukraine would only lead to further escalation.

The joint project appeared to be another step towards mending the relationship between Australia and France which hit a low in 2021 under the former prime minister Scott Morrison.

French President Emmanuel Macron had accused Mr Morrison of lying after Australia tore up a multibillion-dollar contract to buy French submarines, opting instead for joint US-UK nuclear submarines.

Tweet from @RichardMarlesMP

Russia gains ground

Ukraine has urged its supporters to speed up the delivery of promised weapons and ammunition as Russian forces made ground in eastern Ukraine, adding up to their biggest advances in months.

Kyiv said Russia was using its troops in “human wave attacks” that showed Moscow had no regard for the lives of its own men.

Russia claimed its troops had secured a foothold in Vuhledar, a coalmining town whose ruins have been a Ukrainian bastion since the outset of the war.

A day earlier, the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force said his fighters had secured Blahodatne, a village just north of Bakhmut, a city that has been the focus of sustained Russian attacks for months.

Kyiv said it had repelled assaults on Blahodatne and Vuhledar.

The locations of the reported fighting indicated clear, though gradual, Russian gains after about two months in which front lines had largely been frozen in place.

Ukrainian soldiers in a trench on the Vuhledar frontline. Photo: Getty

“The situation is very tough. Bakhmut, Vuhledar and other sectors in Donetsk region — there are constant Russian attacks,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address.

“The enemy does not count its people and, despite numerous casualties, maintains a high intensity of attacks.”

In recent weeks Western countries have pledged hundreds of modern tanks and armoured vehicles to equip Ukrainian forces for a counter-offensive to recapture territory later in 2023.

But delivery of those weapons is months away, leaving Kyiv to fight on through the winter in what both sides have described as a meat grinder of relentless attritional warfare.

After Russia exhausted its military with a failed assault on Kyiv last year, Ukraine’s forces counter-attacked and recaptured swathes of territory in the autumn. But that advance has stalled since November, allowing Russia to retake the initiative.

Moscow’s Wagner mercenary force has sent thousands of convicts recruited from Russian prisons into battle around Bakhmut, buying time for Russia’s regular military to reconstitute units with hundreds of thousands of reservists.

Mr Zelensky said the West must hasten the delivery of its promised weapons so that Ukraine could go back on the offensive.

“Russia wants the war to drag on and exhaust our forces. So we have to make time our weapon,” he said. “We have to … speed up supplies and open up new weapons options for Ukraine.”