The European Union (EU) has already trained some 24,000 Ukrainian fighters out of the 30,000 that it set as a goal for this year as part of its training mission for Ukrainian troops to face the Russian invaders with more guarantees.
“We will continue to support Ukraine (…) We have reached some 24,000 Ukrainian soldiers who are being trained in different Member States. And this number will continue to grow,” Borrell announced upon arrival at a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels .
The head of community diplomacy also referred to the fact that requests for reimbursement of ammunition delivered to Ukraine worth “more than 900 million euros” have been received from EU countries.
The countries of the Union had assigned one billion euros from the European Peace Support Fund (FEAP) to finance part of the artillery ammunition that they had in their arsenals and that was urgently made available to Kiev.
“(Russian President Vladimir) Putin continues to terrorize, attack and destroy civilian infrastructure and kill civilians. So we have to increase our support and provide more sophisticated weapons to deal with these attacks,” Borrell stressed.
It is for this reason that the EU launched different courses of action to provide the ammunition Ukraine needs, he recalled.
He added that “at the end of July” they will also have approved contracts with the industry for the joint acquisition of ammunition by several Member States through the European Defense Agency.
With regard to the community initiative so that in the longer term the industry has guarantees of joint orders, which from Brussels has been baptized ASAP, Borrell highlighted that it is already being negotiated by the Union co-legislators, Parliament and the Council.
His goal, he said, is to provide the necessary support to the industry “to increase its capabilities.”
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