European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said yesterday the bloc would increase military support to Ukraine, after the US Congress passed a stopgap funding bill late on Saturday that omitted aid to Ukraine.
Borrell told a news conference during a visit to Kyiv that in the face of an “existential threat for Europe,” the “proposition on the table” showed the EU wanted to increase military aid to Ukraine.
He was speaking after his first in-person meeting with Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, who was appointed last month.
“Let’s see what will happen in the US, but from our side, we will continue supporting and increasing our support,” Borrell said, when asked about the vote in Washington.
“Ukrainians are fighting with all their courage and capacities,” he said. If the EU wants them to be more successful, he added, “we have to provide them with better arms, and bigger”.
In a statement posted on X, Borrell said the bloc was preparing “long-term security commitments for Ukraine”. He told the news conference he hoped member states would reach a decision on increasing aid “before the end of the year”.
Umerov, whose appointment by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was approved by parliament on September 6, thanked Borrell in a statement on X for “continuous support” and said the meeting was “a starting point for great co-operation”.
He added their discussions of EU military aid covered “artillery & ammunition, air defence, EW (electronic warfare) & long-term assistance programmes, trainings, and defence industry localisation” in Ukraine.
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