related news
EU must continue to supply Kyiv government with arms to prevent Vladimir Putin achieved his goals in Ukraine. This Wednesday, the head of community diplomacy defended it, Joseph Borrellin a speech to the European Parliament, he again expressed his regrets Europeans pay Kremlin €1bn a day for energy imports.
The speech took place hours after Borrell Visit Kyiv with the Chairman of the Committee, Ursula Von der Leyen. His goal is to personally deliver European solidarity to the Ukrainian president, Vladimir Zelensky. At the same time, the EU has begun to approve a fifth set of sanctions against Moscow, This includes an embargo on Russian coal, but not oil or gas.
“we must continue to defend Ukraine. A few days ago, a member of this House (United Left MEP, Manu Pineda) told me that the war must end as soon as possible. The best thing we can do to end the war is to stop arming Ukraine. Yes, the war must end as soon as possible, but when the war is over, how does it end? The sooner yes, but not in any way,” Borrell told MEPs.
“We care about how this war ends. Because if this war ends with A country is destroyed and ruled, a territory dismembered and neutralizedwith millions of exiles and thousands dead, then no. We don’t want this war to end like thisIn order for this war not to end like this, we must continue to arm Ukraine,” said the High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy.
“Zelensky needs less applause and more help. Zelensky needs less time to tell him he’s a hero and give him more weapons to fight. This is what they expect from us Ukrainians and this is what we are doing. We have to do this faster and faster. Continue to pressure Russia and continue to arm Ukraine, help them defend themselves and fight the invaders with all the capabilities we have,” Borrell insisted.
European Parliament President Roberta Mezzola was the first EU leader to visit Kyiv last week
The EU has so far allocated 1 billion euros from the EU budget to finance arms shipments to Ukraine. “It may seem like a lot, but we pay Putin 1 billion euros a day in exchange for the energy he provides us. We gave him 35 billion euros since the war started. Compare that to the $1 billion we gave[to the Ukrainians]to arm them,” the European foreign affairs chief denounced.
This “huge difference” should lead to the EU accelerating its energy independence, and Brussels plans to present detailed plans for this in May. The first step is a coal ban in Russia, although Borrell admits that “this is only a small part of the bill”. “Our independence, our energy autonomy, runs through the development of renewable energy. This time, geopolitics and climate change go hand in hand in one common goal“,He said.
The war in Ukraine also showed EU has ‘accustomed’ to living under US umbrella He ignored his defenses. Beginning with the 2008 financial crisis, Europeans embarked on a “disarmament process” that has only begun to partially reverse since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. At present, the EU’s defense spending accounts for an average of 1% and 5% of GDP.
“Europe has no choice but to NATO for territorial defense, to be clear. But we have to take our responsibilities. We have to end some degree of Taking responsibility for the security and defense of Europeans“, Borrell said. In his view, the Europeans have to spend more, but also better in a coordinated way.
Ursula von der Leyen and Josep Borrell talk before the European Parliament debate
“It would be a grave mistake for all Member States to increase their defence spending in proportion to what each country has now. It would be a huge waste as we will only add to the current duplication and we will continue to have the same shortcomings as before. We have,” warns.
Finally, European foreign policy chiefs called for greater efforts to isolate Russia in the international community and prevent the formation of a new world order of rival blocs. “We must prevent this conflict from building a world divided around a new Cold War, where the West (as they say in Moscow and Beijing) will new alliance of dictatorswhile a group of emerging nations is careful to avoid taking sides in this conflict, many of them are inclined, let’s not hide, and take Russia’s side,” he warned.
For Borrell, “The War on Ukraine Represents a moment of foundation and awakening for Europeansthey are facing a security crisis that shows our weakness, an energy dependence we know we have but we don’t know how serious it already is, and the geopolitical position of the world shows us the risk of strategic contraction.”