EU plans to provide Ukraine with additional €40 billion in defense aid – Kallas

This was stated at a press conference in Brussels as part of the meeting of the EU Council on Foreign Affairs by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Pisi Kaja Kallas, according to information from an Ukrinform correspondent.

“There is broad public support for the €40 billion defence initiative for Ukraine. Of course, the details are currently being worked out. At the last Eurasian Council, we noted that it is necessary to move forward quickly with this initiative. We have already taken some steps in this direction, and of course, we can really move forward. All participants understand that we need to show resilience now, to support Ukraine in its defence,” the EU High Representative stressed.

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She added that EU government representatives positively assessed the results of the negotiations in Jeddah between the Ukrainian and American delegations, noting that now “the ball is in Russia’s court,” although Russia itself is showing that it is not really interested in peace and is only ready to put forward new conditions.

“But we see that Russia does not really want peace. It has also been established that Russia cannot be trusted. They will use this situation to make various demands, and we are already seeing that they are formulating demands that are their ultimate goals. So let's see how this develops further,” Kallas noted.

Answering a question about the readiness of the European side to send its delegation to negotiate an end to the war, the EU High Representative noted that at present there is no real negotiating table, since “shuttle” diplomacy prevails, since Russia is not ready for a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

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“We are discussing these issues (concerning the EU's participation in the negotiations – ed.) with various partners. At the moment, there is real “shuttle” diplomacy, since there is no negotiating table. Last week, we also met with our American colleagues and expressed our concerns about various aspects that could be raised by the Russians and what should be taken into account. However, as we see, there is no negotiating table yet, since Russia does not sit down at the negotiating table,” Kallas said.

As reported, today, March 17, the EU Foreign Affairs Council was held in Brussels, where one of the key issues was continuing assistance to Ukraine and finding ways to end the war in order to achieve a just and sustainable peace. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga took part in the discussion via videoconference.

Photo: Eura.EU