European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday said that Brussels is determined to send additional weapons supplies to Ukraine.
This comes at a time when the European Union on Sunday said that it will finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and equipment to Ukraine and also announced a slew of fresh sanctions against Russia."We are stepping up our support for Ukraine," Borrell said.
Speaking at a meeting of EU defence ministers on Monday, Borrell said the emergency conference was aimed at discussing "the military situation on the ground, how the war in Ukraine is going on," reported Sputnik.
"The purpose is to coordinate what the member states are doing on their side, and what we can do with these half a billion euros that yesterday we decided to grant to the Ukrainian armed forces. We know that these half a billion euros will be devoted to providing defensive arms, but high-calibre arms, anti-tanks, all kind of equipment in order to repel the aggression," Borrell said.
"But we have to provide ammunition, we have to provide the high calibre guns and anti-tank equipment. Also fuel. They need fuel for the tanks, for the planes, and all of that has to be coordinated," Borrell added.
During the meeting, Borrell stressed, "We have to be ready to pay the price, or we will have to pay a much higher price in the future," adding that "relations with Russia will no longer be determined by trade."
The EU will also assist Kyiv with intelligence, Borrell indicated, with the satellite centre in Madrid to provide intel on Russian troop movements to the Ukrainian side and EU countries, reported the news agency.
"For the first time, the EU will finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and equipment to a country under attack. We are also strengthening our sanctions against the Kremlin," tweeted Ursula von der Leyen President of the EU Commission on Sunday.
Leyen said that NATO allies are shutting down the EU airspace for Russian-owned, Russian registered or Russian-controlled aircraft.
"They won't be able to land in, take off or overfly the territory of the EU. Including the private jets of oligarchs," said President of the EU Commission.Leyen also said that they are banning Kremlin's media machine in the EU."The state-owned Russia Today and Sputnik, and their subsidiaries, will no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin's war. We are developing tools to ban their toxic and harmful disinformation in Europe," said Leyen.She also said that Belarus' leader Alexander Lukashenko will also be targeted with a new package of sanctions."We will target the other aggressor in this war, Lukashenko's regime, with a new package of sanctions, hitting their most important sectors. All these measures come on top of the strong package presented yesterday, agreed by our international partners," said Leyen.Earlier, during a phone call with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed that the Ukrainian delegation would meet with the Russian delegation without preconditions on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, near the Pripyat River."Lukashenko has taken responsibility for ensuring that all planes, helicopters and missiles stationed on Belarusian territory remain on the ground during the Ukrainian delegation's travel, talks and return, Zelensky's office wrote," The Kyiv Independent tweeted.Meanwhile, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Lieutenant-General Valery Zaluzhny said that they are opposing one of the largest armies in the world."We are opposed by one of the largest armies in the world. But we are stronger! And every day our benches get stronger. In 2 days almost 100 thousand citizens were mobilized, half of them are reservists of the TRO Forces!, said Zaluzhny.
( With inputs from ANI )
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