Arms sent to Ukraine due to 'existential' security challenge: Borrell

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
19 Feb 2023 18:38

This comes just two months after Ukraine expressed hope of receiving additional tanks from the West in 2023, and this month, it began receiving longer-range missiles and fighter jets from countries such as the UK and Germany.

EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borell at the EU-Ukraine Association Council meeting in September 2022 (AFP)

During a panel on European security architecture at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell believes that the European Union is shipping weapons to Ukraine because the war poses an "existential" challenge to the bloc's own security.

"We are arming Ukraine because this war is a challenge for our security, an existential challenge for Europe," he said.

This comes just two months after Ukraine expressed hope of receiving additional tanks from the West in 2023, and this month, it began receiving longer-range missiles and fighter jets from countries such as the UK and Germany.

"All European leaders … have been saying once and again that Ukraine, Moldova, and later Georgia will be members of the European Union and the process is open," Borrell stated, adding that it should not be expected "to be done overnight, without any kind of fulfilling of some requirements."

Borrell was pressed about Ukraine's outlook for joining on the final day of the Munich Security Conference in Germany, which has been dominated by the conflict in Ukraine. Kiev insists that the eastern European nation is fit to join right away. It was granted EU candidate status last June.

Sunak, Scholz amping up prep and deliveries

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed on Saturday that the UK has sent £2.3 billion ($2.8 billion) in 2022 to Ukraine and will be providing the equivalent or more in 2023, in addition to intending to be the first nation to transfer longer-range weapons to the latter.

During the Munich Security Conference, Sunak said, "Just this year we became the first country in the world to provide tanks to Ukraine and the first to train pilots and marines. We gave 2.3 billion pounds last year, and we will match or exceed that in 2023," adding that his country is due to send "more arms in the next three months" than was delivered in 2022.

Last Friday at the same conference, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz considered that weapons supplied to Kiev contribute to ending the war sooner and the withdrawal of "Russia's conquering troops."

“It is not the weapons we are supplying that are prolonging the war. The opposite is true,” he said, adding that the sooner Russian President Vladimir Putin realizes “that he will not achieve his imperialist goal, the greater the chances are of the war ending in the near future, and of Russia’s conquering troops withdrawing."

"I think it's wise to prepare for a long war," Scholz said in his speech.

Many countries, among them the UK, have had their armies express that excessive shipments of weapons to Ukraine are weakening national armies and defense supplies.