The EU doubles the fund to send weapons to Ukraine | International

The European Union is going to double the fund created to finance the shipment of war material to Ukraine. The High Representative for Foreign Policy of the European Union, Josep Borrell, proposed to the Heads of State and Government at the dinner they held this Thursday night to increase the resources destined to reinforce Ukraine’s defense against Russia. There was no discrepancy. “We will increase our contribution to military support for Ukraine by another 500 million,” Borrell said this Friday at the second session of the informal summit held by the Twenty-seven in Versailles. This increase in the item raises the money available in the fund to 1,000 million.

Almost two weeks ago, European leaders already agreed on the creation of this instrument in order to finance the shipment of war material to Ukraine. It was a historic decision, not so much because of the amount, 500 million, but because the EU was thus taking a step that it had resisted until now. With a name that seems ironic due to the objective of the instrument, the Peace Facility In principle, it had two lines of financing: 450 million for weapons and 50 million for non-lethal war material. That money was consumed in a short time.

With this decision, the EU strengthens Ukraine’s resistance to the Russian invasion. However, the amount is far from what the United States has allocated, whose Senate approved this Thursday to allocate 13.6 billion dollars (12.3 billion euros) to the invaded country. Of this amount, some 6,700 million dollars (just over 6,000 million euros) are dedicated to responding to the great refugee crisis that has triggered the conflict – there are already 2.2 million displaced -, and to economic aid to the attacked country , and around 6,500 million (about 5,900 million euros) for military support from the Pentagon.

Along with the reinforcement of weapons, the high representative has also indicated that the EU is going to study new sanctions to punish the Russian economy, the country’s president, Vladimir Putin, and his close circle, especially the Russian oligarchs. This group of millionaires grown up sheltered from the privatization of former Soviet companies, Kremlin concessions and their closeness to Putin has been one of the most striking targets of Western sanctions. For now, large yachts and other types of assets have been confiscated, such as those disclosed on Thursday by the United Kingdom Government, which announced that it had frozen some 18,000 million from seven of these oligarchs, including the owner of Chelsea, Roman Abramovich.

Follow all the international information in Facebook and Twitteror in our weekly newsletter.