Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called once again on Europe to increase their military aid on Saturday 13 May. On the ground, progress is limited in this trench warfare.
“We have to do everything they can to support forces on the ground. The EU has both the political will and the capacities to do so”, he stressed ahead of a meeting with his European and Indo-Pacific counterparts in Stockholm.
He said Ukraine “needs everything” from medical vehicles to long-range missiles to F16 fighter jets.
While appreciating what has been done so far, Mr Kuleba said it would be possible to say that the aid had been sufficient when Ukraine had won the war.
The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, also said that more needed to be done to help Ukraine. “We are providing the Ukrainians with ammunition, but certainly we are committed to accelerating the supply of ammunition for these fights”, he promised, as the Europeans pledged to supply one million rounds of ammunition in 12 months (see EUROPE 13161/10). Mr Borrell said he was certain that ammunition shipments would increase because the financial capacity was there. “It’s not a question of funding, it’s a question of logistics”, he said.
Mr Borrell also said that Ukraine should have weapons with a range as long as those used by Russia.
On Monday, at a press conference ahead of the Council of Europe, G7 and EU/South Korea summits, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called on leaders to unite around two main principles: support Ukraine ‘for as long as it takes’ and ‘nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine’.
For the President, ‘as long as it takes’ must mean stable financial support, of course beyond 2023, and “accelerated” military support, “focused on the ‘now’ and the ‘here’”.
Moreover, for von der Leyen, ‘nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine’ means strong support for President Zelensky’s peace formula. “Any credible peace plan must be rooted in the principles of the UN Charter. And we are extremely clear: only Ukraine should decide when to consider potential negotiations”, added European Council President Charles Michel, who was present with von der Leyen.
The two leaders underlined their support for the creation of a damage register in The Hague, which Michel said was “the first step towards an international mechanism for compensation for damage, loss or injury suffered by Ukraine” as a result of Russian military aggression. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)