Brussels 19.11.2024 “…It is clear that Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is the biggest threat to the European security and stability since the end of the Second World War. It is good to remind that security is the most important asset for a society. If there is no security, it is difficult to build anything else” said the EU top diplomat Josep Borrell after the meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council, Defence.

“Security can be against foreign enemies or can also be against natural disasters, the threats of nature. As, for example, today, the military capacities of the Spanish army are being mobilised to support people in Valencia affected by the [storm] DANA.

“But war is a different thing. And, unhappily, the war came back to the borders of Europe. It is becoming increasingly a global security risk, at the borders of Europe, the eastern borders of Europe and in many other places around the world.

“The war against Ukraine is affecting directly our values and principles. The fate of the Ukrainians will determine the destiny of the European Union.

“That is what Member [States] discussed today – and by an overwhelming majority, they considered it exactly [like] this. The fate of Ukraine will determine the destiny of the European Union. If Putin could be successful in Ukraine, we will all pay a very high bill, much more expensive than any kind of military support that we could provide today.

“Today is the 1,000th days of Putin’s full-scale war – but it is also 4,000 days since the first invasion of Crimea.

“Since then, maybe we have not been using time in order to prepare our [defence] capacities. [German Defence] Minister [Boris] Pistorius rightly said that today.

“Since 2014, until now, the Europeans have gone through a silent process of disarmament, not recovering quickly the military capacities that they lost after the Eurocrisis.

“But today we have to regain these capacities by standing together, by taking courageous decisions, by committing to supporting Ukraine with all possible means; and, in doing so, to send a powerful signal to Putin that Europe will not be divided and will not renounce the support of Ukraine.

“Ukraine was at the centre of our discussion today. Two Ukrainian representatives attended the meeting through videoconference. We were joined by the new North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Secretary General Mark Rutte, the two [Ukrainian] partners – the Defence Minister of Ukraine, [Rustem] Umerov, and Presidential Advisor on Strategic Issues Oleksandr Kamyshin. We discussed, at the end of the day, during the lunch, with Special Advisor [Sauli] Niinistö, who presented recently a report on Preparedness for the European Union.

“Allow me to recall that the Member States have supported Ukraine with about €45 billion on military support. It is not a negligeable amount. Certainly, it is less than the United States, but not much less. €45 billion of military support.

“We have reached our objective of one million artillery ammunition rounds that have already been delivered to Ukraine. Few days ago, we were at 99% and, certainly, some months later than expected but these one million ammunitions have already been delivered to Ukraine.

“We will continue doing that, because Russia continues receiving a substantial delivery of ammunition and missiles from North Korea and Iran. Without the support of North Korea and Iran, Russia would not be able to continue waging this war.

“Regarding the European Peace Facility, which is the instrument that we use since the beginning – I remember very well when we decided to use the European Peace Facility to arm Ukraine the first day of Russia’s aggression. Unhappily, there has not been progress on my proposal to move forward with the political agreement to reimburse these €6.6 billion of military assistance to Ukraine. We are still in a blockage, and I instructed the technical bodies of the Council to continue working for a solution.

“On the other hand, we have been receiving and using the extraordinary revenues coming from Russia’s immobilised assets; it is well underway. We expect more deliveries to Ukraine before the end of the year, being financed by these Russian immobilised assets’ revenues.

“From the first tranche, we are using €400 million to invest directly in Ukraine’s defence industry. After my visit to Ukraine, I came back fully convinced that the best way of supporting militarily Ukraine is to boost their own industrial capacity.

“They are developing very quickly, very well, at a very competitive price. Developing modern technologies in the field of drones, in particular. It is very important and interesting to invest and boost this industrial capacity, avoiding and saving logistic and transportation issues.

“We will have to put our strong efforts in order to link the industrial capacities of Ukraine into the industrial ecosystem of European defence.

“I proposed that a larger part of the second tranche of the windfall profits that will be available in March or April [next year], will be focusing on purchasing military equipment to the benefit of Ukraine directly – directly to their own industrial capacity.

“We also addressed the future of our Military Assistance Mission [EUMAM Ukraine with] 65.000 Ukrainian soldiers trained. We are the largest provider for Ukrainian capacities for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

“I called [on] the Ministers to reconsider my proposal of establishing a coordination cell in Kyiv directly [under EUMAM]. It is not escalating; it is just putting in Kyiv a cell that could coordinate better our activities with the needs of the Ukranian armed forces.

“We discussed with NATO’s Secretary General [Mark Rutte], and the discussion went quickly to the level of expenditure.

“We are almost there, all together, Member States – some more than others. All together we are at about 1.9% of military expenditure – but, according to our discussion with the Secretary General, it looks like this 2% figure will not be enough.

“In order to face the challenges we are facing, this landmark – this mythical figure of 2% – will not be enough. We need to take more action. As I have said many times – we have to do more and faster. We have seen through the war against Ukraine that we need to step up our defence capabilities.

“Allow me to say strongly this motto: Europeans have to do more and quicker, in order to increase their defence capacity. Not just to support Ukraine, but for our own security.

“We see that in the [Russian] war against Ukraine, Russia is getting support from China, North Korea, Iran and others. This is an escalation in deep contrast without any intention to seek peace.

“I repeat: without this support – of North Korea, Iran and China – Russia would not be able to continue waging the war to the same degree…”.