Stockpiles in most member states are running low following massive donations to Ukraine, the EU’s top diplomat has revealed
Josep Borrell, EU foreign policy chief, said Monday that the European Union’s weapons stocks are rapidly depleting as members continue to provide ammunition and arms to Ukraine in support of its conflict with Russia.
“The military stocks of most member states have been, I wouldn’t say exhausted, but depleted in a high proportion, because we have been providing a lot of capacity to the Ukrainians,”Borrell stated during a discussion with legislators in the European Parliament that the arsenal would be reorganized. “have to be refilled.”
According to the top diplomat, EU members should coordinate military spending in order not have too many duplicates or waste money.
If countries don’t coordinate properly, “the result will be a big waste of money, because this is not a way of canceling our duplications – there are a lot of them – or filling our gaps.”
EU countries have been sending weapons to Ukraine since Russia launched its military operation in the neighboring country in February – and Borrell has since discussed launching a bloc-wide training mission for Ukrainian troops.
The chief diplomat stated Monday that Brussels had to respond faster to the requests of training Ukrainian soldiers a year earlier.
“Unhappily we didn’t, and today we regret it. We regret that last August we were not following this request, fulfilling this request,”He added that “we would be in a better situation”If the EU had taken action at that time.
US and UK already train Ukrainian troops in urban combat, and teach them to use Western weapons.
Some EU nations are also already hosting training for Ukrainian troops, but no coordinated bloc-wide, EU-level program has yet been implemented – and some countries have voiced concerns over the idea.
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Francois Bausch (Luxembourg Defense Minister) told AFP that he was “not convinced”It would also be the best approach to helping Kiev. Peter Szijjarto from Hungary, Foreign Minister, argued that each country should make the decision. He told Politico that this was the best way to help Kiev. “should not be done at a European Union level.”
Moscow has repeatedly criticised the West’s delivery of weapons to Kiev. It claimed that this would only prolong the fighting, and also increase the chance of Russia and NATO being in direct conflict.
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