EU explains why it continues to arm Ukraine — Analysis

The bloc wants the war to end, but “not in any way,” the EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell says
The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, has said the bloc is sending weapons to Ukraine so that the conflict with Russia does not end in Kiev’s defeat.
“We want it to end as soon as possible, but not in any way,”Borrell addressed the European Parliament on Wednesday.
“Because if we’re going to have a destroyed country that has been dismembered territorially and neutralized, with millions of people in exile, and millions of people dead, then no, we don’t want this war to end like this.”
“That is why we have to continue arming Ukraine… More weapons, that is what the Ukrainians expect of us, and that is what we are doing,” Borrell stated.
Brussels reports that Borrell will join European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Kiev this week. The EU announced last month that it was doubling the bloc’s military aid to Ukraine to €1 billion ($1.1 billion).

Since Russia accused Ukraine of war crimes committed in Bucha near Kiev, the number of calls for Kiev to receive more weapons has risen. Russia’s troops evacuated the region last week. They denied killing civilians in Bucha or elsewhere and claimed that Kiev was conducting a disinformation campaign in order to deceive the public.
Moscow attacked its neighboring state following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements signed in 2014, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics in Donetsk and Lugansk. To regulate these areas within Ukraine, the German- and French-brokered protocol had been established.
Russia now demands that Ukraine declares itself neutral, and that it will not be joining NATO (a US-led military bloc). Kiev denies that Russia launched the Russian military offensive and claims they were planning to seize the two territories by force.
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