The Ukrainian Defence Minister, Oleksii Reznikov called, on Thursday 17 March, on EU member states to provide his country with more lethal equipment to help it cope with the Russian invasion.
Thanking the Europeans for the €500 million in aid granted to his country through the European Peace Facility (EPF), Mr Reznikov said that “more lethal weapons and means to fight the aggressor were needed”. “We are ready to use all the financial support very quickly” he added at a hearing in the European Parliament. Out of the €500 million from the EPF, €200 million are said to be still be available.
According to the minister, Ukraine needs armed vehicle aircraft, anti-tank, anti-aircraft and anti-helicopter systems. In addition to the armed forces, there are 90,000 members of the territorial defence to be equipped.
“It could be donations, sales, transfers”, Mr Reznikov said.
The minister also called for the implementation of a no-fly zone, saying that further hesitation on the part of the international community would be seen by Ukrainian children as “a crime against Ukraine”.
Mr Reznikov estimated that, since the beginning of the war, Russia had already lost more than 14,000 soldiers in the conflict, including several generals, more than 450 tanks and armed vehicles and 750 planes that have been shot down.
The minister also called for sanctions to be tightened, saying that many European companies were continuing to operate in Russia and that this was being done “on the blood of Ukrainian children”. “All relations with the Russian Federation must be stopped”, he insisted.
The Defence Minister also called on MEPs to recognise Vladimir Putin as a “war criminal”, as US President Joe Biden did on Wednesday 16 March. “Russia aims to destroy Ukraine, international law and the values that make us human”, the minister said, calling the Russian fighters “monsters”. “The Kremlin is today’s Hitler”, the minister said. And he warned: “The Kremlin will not stop at one country, its plan is to ruin the EU, to ruin the unity of NATO”.
According to Reznikov, the international community could have prevented Russia’s invasion of Ukraine if it had reacted earlier, in 2014, when Crimea was illegally annexed by Russia. “The international community did not react in the right way, and today the whole world is paying the price”, he explained, citing the energy, economic and food crises linked to the war. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)