Borrell proposes to EU leaders to double the shipment of weapons to Ukraine with another 500 million

Josep Borrell, High Representative for Foreign Policy of the EU – Europa Press/Contact/Mirdass/EUC

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VERSAILLES (FRANCE), 11 (from the Royals Blue special envoy, Víctor Tuda)

The High Representative of the EU for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, will propose to the leaders of the Twenty-seven to double military assistance to Ukraine with another 500 million euros in weapons, through the European Peace Mechanism.

“We will increase our contribution to military support for Ukraine by another 500 million”, assured the head of community diplomacy upon arrival at the second day of the informal summit of heads of state and government, which is being held in Versailles, France.

Now it will be up to the leaders to give formal approval to this proposal to expand the coverage of the European Peace Mechanism, used for the first time to send weapons to a third country at war.

In any case, Borrell has advanced that there are no differences between the Twenty-seven and that there will be an agreement at the level of leaders to send more weapons in the coming days, after pointing out that “everyone is aware” that military support must be reinforced to Kiev and increase the pressure against Russia.

Along the same lines, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, has confirmed the consensus among leaders to strengthen the European Peace Mechanism and send more weapons to Ukraine. “In just a few days the EU has decided to make a change of direction by facilitating military means,” said the former Belgian Prime Minister, about the unprecedented step of the EU to arm the Ukrainian Army.

Likewise, he underlined the European bloc’s intention to redouble humanitarian aid to mitigate the effects of the bombings against the Ukrainian civilian population. “We are horrified by the acts committed by the Russian Army against civilians,” she said.

This Friday Spain has already confirmed that it will send more weapons to Ukraine in the coming days, although the Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, has called for discretion on the type of weapons and where they will enter the country.

In a step forward in the midst of the Russian invasion, the EU agreed two weeks ago to allocate 450 million to send lethal weapons to Ukraine to help the population resist the Russian military offensive. A support that is complemented with another 50 million for non-lethal material such as fuel or medical material.

The Mechanism, with the contribution of the Member States, will finance the shipment of arms to Kiev retroactively from the beginning of the year, when the first EU countries offered military aid to the Ukrainian authorities for the escalation on the border.