On Monday 23 September, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, once again called for greater support for Ukraine, saying that the country needed Europeans more than ever.
At a time when Russia is stepping up its bombardments, including recently on a ship carrying grain to Egypt and on energy infrastructure, “Ukraine is reacting fully and in line with its right to self-defence – Article 51 of the United Nations Charter – and needs more than ever our support”, explained Mr Borrell at the end of an informal meeting of European foreign affairs ministers in New York. The meeting was an opportunity for the new Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, to brief his counterparts on the situation on the ground.
“Winter is coming (...) and we have to support Ukraine, not only by providing military capacity, but also by providing electricity production capacity. Otherwise, this country will be facing a very hard time in winter”, stressed Mr Borrell, who had attended, a few hours earlier, a meeting of G7+ foreign affairs ministers focusing on support for Ukraine’s energy sector (see other news). According to him, as a result of Russian attacks on energy targets, Ukraine’s energy production capacity has been reduced by two-thirds.
“So, we have to provide Ukraine with electricity generation capacity, with energy production capacity (...). At the same time, we have to provide air defence capacity, in order to avoid these capacities being destroyed as soon as they are being put into work”, insisted the High Representative.
While Ukraine has succeeded in destroying “two big stockpiles of ammunition at 500 kilometres from of the border” in recent days, Mr Borrell again called for restrictions on Ukraine using Western equipment on military targets on Russian territory to be lifted. A decision that is not unanimously supported by the Member States. “If we want to strengthen our air defence capacity, we must also ensure that the Ukrainians can attack the Russians from where they are attacking them. Otherwise, they will do it with full impunity”, said the head of European diplomacy, adding that Ukraine needed to improve its military situation in order to approach the peace negotiations “in a good way, from a position of strength”.
EU concerned about the role of Western components in Russian weapons
According to the High Representative, it is also clear that “Russia has been receiving new arms, in particular missiles from Iran”. And although the EU has imposed numerous sanctions on the Russian military-industrial complex and its partners, on Tuesday in Brussels, at the opening of an exhibition on ‘Components and technology used in weapons, military and special equipment deployed in the war of aggression against Ukraine’, the EU’s special envoy for sanctions, David O’Sullivan, said it was “very worrying to see the important role played by Western components in these deadly weapons”.
While the EU has succeeded in making access to the products used in these weapons “more difficult and more costly for Russia”, there “are still ways of circumventing these sanctions”, regretted Mr O’Sullivan, the day after a meeting of the G7 coordinators on sanctions. He said that the Europeans were working with companies to make them aware of the risks of their products finding their way to Russia.
What’s more, “deals with third countries that are platforms through which these products transit, and many of them have cracked down and made the situation more difficult. But, of course, every time we close one bypass, another one opens up. So it’s a constant effort, harder work every day, to ensure that it is increasingly difficult for the Russian army to acquire these lethal components”, Mr O’Sullivan said, adding that the EU was working on ways of controlling the entire supply chain as far as possible. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)