EU defense ministers to launch military assistance to Ukraine: Borrell

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EU defense ministers have agreed on establishing a joint military assistance mission to Kiev, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said at a press conference on Tuesday.    

Following the informal meeting of EU defense ministers in Prague, Borrell said that there are several training initiatives on the way, "but the needs are enormous, and we need to ensure the coherence of these efforts. I can say that all member states agree clearly on that and on launching the work necessary to define the parameters for a EU military assistance mission for Ukraine; I am not saying that this was decided today, in any case, this was an informal council, an informal council doesn't take decisions."

Borrell noted that the EU continues to support Ukraine and they "unanimously" agreed on this, adding that "the EU stands united in support of Ukraine and the member states remain ready to continue support as long as needed and as much as needed."

Just last month, Borrell urged the EU to amp up cooperative weapons purchases to restore stocks depleted by the military support provided to Ukraine, improving NATO and the bloc's military capacities, and adding that the EU needs more deployable and interoperable armed forces to confront the whole spectrum of dangers and threats the unit is now experiencing.

The US has also demonstrated its stance on the matter, by not only providing its own troops for the Ukrainian forces but also recruiting former Afghan special forces and IS members to join the Ukrainian forces.

Both the US and the EU have been stacking military aid packages, with the former's latest package including a $3bln arms supply and the latter's seen through Germany's continuation of weaponry transfer to Ukraine, including new equipment that the German Armed Forces do not have enough of, according to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

The UK is also in deep water, according to a source cited by The Times newspaper, given that it is running out of weapons and financial contributions for Ukraine, which means that the new UK Prime Minister will face the question of whether to make billions of pounds of additional support at a time when public finances are under strain.