UPDATED: EU’s arms finance plan will deliver defensive weapons to Ukraine
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BRUSSELS, Feb 28 (Reuters) – EU defence ministers will discuss plans on Monday to jointly finance deliveries of weapons worth 500 million euros to Ukraine, and these will include a range of defensive arms to repel Russian forces, the bloc’s foreign policy chief said.
“Member states have to provide these arms, they have to coordinate with what they are doing … with these resources,” Josep Borrell said ahead of the virtual meeting of European Union defence ministers.
“The fight is fierce, Kyiv is resisting … and Russia is paying a high toll in number of casualties, but we have to provide the munitions, we have to provide the high-calibre guns and anti-tank equipment. Also fuel … for the tanks, for the planes, all that has to be coordinated.”
European Union defence ministers will meet virtually later on Monday to coordinate their assistance for Ukraine after the bloc decided for the first time to jointly fund weapons and send them to Kyiv, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Twitter.
“We will discuss further urgent needs and coordinate our assistance, with help of the clearing house managed by the EU military staff,” Borrell said.
On Sunday, the EU announced it would tighten sanctions on Russia, ban Russian state-owned television network Russia Today and news agency Sputnik and fund weapons for Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russia’s invasion.
Earlier, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said EU countries will send “fighter jets” to Ukraine at Kyiv’s request to help it counter the Russian air and land assault .
“We’re going to provide even fighting jets. We’re not talking about just ammunition. We are providing more important arms to go to a war,” he told a press conference.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has told the EU “they need the kind of fighting jets that the Ukrainian army is able to operate… some member states have these kinds of planes,” Borrell said.
A person familiar with the talks later said that discussions are still ongoing. The person said any planes would be supplied directly by EU member states and not funded through an arrangement announced earlier for the EU to finance weapons deliveries to Ukraine.
Mr. Borrell said that Mr. Kuleba had requested planes that Ukrainian Air Force pilots can fly. Ukraine’s jet fighters are Soviet-built MiG and Sukhoi models.
Some current EU members that were once part of the USSR-led Warsaw Pact still fly such planes or have old ones parked.
A file photo of an Ukrainian Su-27 fighter. EPA-EFE/SERGEY DOLZHENKO
