The war in Ukraine has exhausted the European Union’s arsenals of weapons and has shown that it lacks “essential defense capabilities” to protect itself in the event of a conflict, the head of European diplomacy, the Spanish Joseph Borrell, warned Thursday.
“We’re facing real threats… We’d rather not have to, but they’re there, close by, and likely to get worse. I don’t want to be Cassandra delivering the bad news, but that’s the reality,” she said. she said she.
Russia’s war against Ukraine was “a rude awakening for many of us,” he said.
9 billion euros
The military support that the EU provides to Ukraine “comes from army stocks, and everyone agrees that these stocks were quickly depleted, because they were almost empty,” he lamented. This support amounts to nearly 9,000 million euros, including 3.1 from the European Fund for Peace, Josep Borrell had specified at the beginning of December.
Member states and their armed forces must “cooperate more” to continue supporting Ukraine and “start preparing for the future,” he pleaded. The defense of the EU is ensured by NATO and the allies have mobilized significant resources to reinforce the armies of the countries on the Eastern flank of the Alliance.
The Europeans have embarked on a massive rearmament with commitments of close to 200 billion euros. Germany has thus decided to create an exceptional fund endowed with 100,000 million euros and will increase its spending to 2% of its GDP. Three emergencies have been identified: replenishment of ammunition and weapons stocks depleted by supplies to Ukraine, air defense capabilities, and replacement of legacy Soviet-era equipment.
The United States is in line to equip its European allies who are members of NATO. Since 2006, the Europeans have bought 60% of their weapons from the United States and non-European countries, the Commission said in a report published in May. Defense spending in EU countries increased by 20% between 1999 and 2021, when it grew 60% in the United States, 292% in Russia and 592% in China.
Source: BFM TV
