European Union foreign ministers approve sending €500 million extra military aid to Kiev
The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, defended that the European Union (EU) would continue to “firmly” support Ukraine in the face of the escalation of the Russian attacks and on Monday the twenty-seven kept their word. EU foreign ministers strengthened their cooperation with Kiev with the approval of a training mission for the Ukrainian army and the shipment of military equipment worth €500 million.
The training mission proposed by Borrell himself aims to train 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers on European soil. Of these, 12,000 are expected to receive basic military training. The initiative will take place in several European countries, including Poland, and responds to requests from Kiev to improve the capabilities of the Ukrainian military against Russian forces.
Training Ukrainian soldiers is vital at a time when Moscow has intensified its attacks on the country. It is a “powerful” program, which will train recruits and military commanders and provide “strong support” to Kiev, Borrell stressed. This initiative is expected to start as soon as possible, once the technical details have been ironed out, and is expected to go live in November.
France and Germany are already training Ukrainian troops in the use of artillery and missile launch systems. And the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada are also working together.
At the same time, EU foreign ministers on Monday approved a new €500 million tranche for shipments of arms and ammunition to Ukraine. In this way, the European Peace Mechanism has provided 3,000 million in military aid to Kiev since the beginning of the Russian invasion. This money is used to modernize the equipment of the Soviet-era Ukrainian army and strengthen its military capacity against the Russian giant.
The new tranche of support will be used more specifically to bolster the country’s air defenses, which is vital to protect energy infrastructure during the winter. Of this, 490 million will be used to supply lethal equipment to Ukraine and the remaining 10 million to buy protective equipment and fuel.
The EU was also concerned about recent attacks on civilians in Ukraine and is investigating the alleged use of Iranian drones in these operations. If that connection is proven, Borrell assured that the Twenty-seven will take revenge on Tehran. “We are collecting evidence and we will be ready to respond with the tools at our disposal,” he said. For his part, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba intervened in the meeting via video call to request new sanctions against Russia in light of the military escalation in recent weeks.
Source: La Verdad
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