Borrell: European armies have 100 Patriot batteries, but still cannot provide seven of them to Ukraine

The European Union is not doing enough to protect Ukraine from Russia's attempts to destroy Ukrainian cities using missiles and guided bombs, so it must urgently provide Ukraine with more air defense equipment and ammunition.

EU High Representative Josep Borrell said this during a speech at the European forum Nueva Economia Forum, Ukrinform reports.

"I spoke with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba some days ago and he is desperately asking for seven Patriot batteries to protect his country. It should be inconceivable that we were not able to provide them, given that the Western armies have about 100 batteries of Patriot. And still, we are not able to provide the seven they are asking desperately for," said the EU official.

He emphasized that the EU should pay more attention not only to the future reconstruction of Ukraine, but also to how to prevent its destruction now. Because the best way to spend less on reconstruction is to spend more to prevent destruction.

"Ukrainians do not have the capacity to avoid destruction because, to tell the truth, we should be doing more and quicker in order to allow them to have the capacities they need," Borrell said.

The second problem, regarding the supply of ammunition, he said, requires addressing the ability of the European defense industry to produce more, to create the institutional capacity to achieve this result. Because historically, European defense has never been built on the basis of a single supranational plan, and it still remains the responsibility of the EU member states.

"We have to face the two problems that we have. One is a problem of expenditure, of money, of resources, of finance. And then we have a problem of collective action: how do we manage, how do we organise our collective action? We have a problem of expenditure because we have neglected defence and security issues since the euro crisis," Borrell said.

He reminded that in the past weeks he has called on European foreign ministers and defense ministers to provide Ukraine with more air defense equipment so that it can stop Russian missiles and guided bombs that are destroying Ukrainian cities and their infrastructure.

As reported, since the beginning of Russia's military invasion of Ukraine, the EU has been providing Ukraine with substantial economic, political, humanitarian and military assistance, including the supply of weapons and ammunition, and training for Ukrainian troops using the financial capabilities of the intergovernmental European Peace Fund.

Photo: Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores y de Cooperación