EU To Use Frozen Russian Funds to Arm Ukraine
At a summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, European leaders will seek strategies to better equip Ukraine against what they perceive as a growing Russian threat.
With Western aid becoming scarce, several European leaders express concern that Ukraine could face defeat at the hands of a Russia that will not stop at Ukraine, writes news.ro.
French President Emmanuel Macron warned last week, "If we let Ukraine lose this war, then Russia will certainly threaten Moldova, Romania, and Poland."
Seeking solutions, Europeans are increasing their announcements to strengthen Ukraine's arsenal and bolster their own defence industry. Meanwhile, US aid of over 60 billion dollars remains stalled in the Washington Congress.
Several ideas are under consideration at the European summit. The 27 will discuss a plan to utilise the exceptional profits generated by Russian assets frozen in Europe shortly after the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
These assets, valued at over 200 billion euros in the EU, have generated income that the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, has estimated at over 3 billion euros per year. The proposal aims to use most of this income to finance arms purchases for Kyiv.
Fourteen European countries, including France and Germany, advocate for the European Investment Bank (EIB) to finance the EU defence industry. Currently, this is not possible despite the institution being over sixty years old.
Time is of the essence, however. In recent weeks, Russian forces have regained the initiative on the battlefield against Ukrainians facing shortages of ammunition and weapons. Russia has received hundreds of thousands of shells from North Korea. Josep Borrell warned on Tuesday, "The summer will be decisive" for Ukraine.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
