European diplomacy chief Josep Borrell warned yesterday that a potential Russian nuclear strike on Ukraine would trigger a Western “military response” so “powerful” that it would “annihilate” the Russian army.
Speaking at a meeting of defense ministers of the North Atlantic Council (NAC), which is taking place in Brussels, Borrell asked Russian President Vladimir Putin not to use the “bluff” to make threats.
“Putin cannot afford to bluff. He has to realize that whoever supports Ukraine – the EU [European Union], United States and NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] – is not bluffing. Any nuclear attack against Ukraine would provoke a response, not a nuclear one, but a military response so powerful that the Russian army would be annihilated,” Borrell stressed.
A little earlier, when he arrived at NATO headquarters, the head of European diplomacy took the opportunity to announce that, next week, the EU will approve new funding that will increase military support to Ukraine to “more than 3,000 million” from the beginning. of the conflict.
“I come to inform the members of NATO that we are going to approve, hopefully next Monday, in Luxembourg, a new installment of our military support to the Ukrainian armed forces”, declared the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
In total, the EU will have dedicated “more than 3,000 million dollars (about 3,080 million euros) in resources from the European Peace Support Fund”, he added, before the meeting with the defense ministers of the 30 NATO member states. .
Since the beginning of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, the Europeans have already earmarked €2,500 million from the €5,700 million donation from a fund created outside the European budget to finance arms deliveries to Ukraine.
The new installment will be 500 million, said a European source, quoted by the news agency France-Presse (AFP).
Foreign ministers from the EU 27 will meet Monday in Luxembourg to endorse the new funding and launch a major military mission to help Ukrainian troops face off against invading Russian forces.
The new military mission will also be financed by the European Peace Support Mechanism and should allow for, “initially”, military training to 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers, added AFP.
The political agreement reached Wednesday by the ambassadors of the 27 member states to the EU in Brussels provides for a headquarters for missions and training centers in each member state that will organize them. Poland and Germany expressed their willingness to host the headquarters.
NATO members have pledged to provide Ukraine with anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense systems, something that requires several months of training for proper use.
The UK, which left the EU, has been training Ukrainian soldiers in the country for several months.
During the meeting of NATO Defense Ministers, Josep Borrell, who also presented today the project of a European Diplomatic Academy (ADE) in which the community bloc intends to train its own diplomats, expressed concern that there are still five countries, including Russia, who refused Wednesday, at the UN General Assembly, to condemn the Russian annexations of Ukrainian territory and 35 others, including China, South Africa and India, who abstained from the vote.
“Twenty percent of the global community has decided not to support or reject Russian annexations. For me, it’s a lot. We are happy because the bottle is quite full, but it is still a little empty. We must continue to work to make the world reject this war even more clearly”, said Borrell, who acknowledged that on many occasions diplomacy is not just about values, but also about interests and dependence on Moscow.
The European Diplomatic Academy’s project aims to train future EU diplomats in areas such as the bloc’s foreign and security policy, as well as acquire the necessary skills and abilities to “effectively promote and defend the principles and interests” of the EU bloc in the world.
