🇪🇺🇺🇦 Stop exporting weapons and send them to Ukraine instead, Borrell urges EU countries

Member states should temporarily halt exports of weapons to countries other than Ukraine, The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said on Monday, asking governments to take a "political decision" and step up ammunition supplies.

"Not only do we have to support Ukraine for as long as it takes but for whatever it takes. (It's) not just a matter of time – it's a matter of quantity and quality of our supplies," the foreign policy chief said during an official visit to Warsaw.

"And certainly we have to do more and quicker because Ukraine has to prevail."

The European Union approved in March last year a €2-billion plan to boost ammunition deliveries to Ukraine, pledging to send one million 155mm shells within 12 months to help the battered country defend itself against Russia's full-scale invasion.

But by late 2023, the bloc had provided just 330,000 rounds, despite repeated pleas from Kyiv. The number is expected to reach around 520,000 by the end of March.

The slow deliveries were initially blamed on entrenched industrial bottlenecks, supply chain disruptions and sluggish investment, a direct consequence of the peaceful years that Europe enjoyed after the end of the Cold War.

However, according to Borrell, industrial capacity is no longer an obstacle: what is hampering deliveries to Ukraine is the fact that European companies are exporting weapons to clients that are not at war.

"An important part of our production is being exported to third countries," he said, without naming the destinations.

"The quickest and cheapest and (most) effective way of increasing our supply of
ammunition to Ukraine is to stop exporting
to third countries. And this is something that
only member states can do – and this has
been my request."

"Try to tell the others (clients) – 'please wait, you're not at war, you can wait some months' – and divert this production to Ukraine"