Swedish EU presidency managed to unite Europe in support of Ukraine, - von der Leyen
Ursula von der Leyen thanked Sweden for its "very successful" EU presidency, which is coming to an end today, and noted the country’s role in ensuring unity of effort to support Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression.
The head of the European Commission said this in Brussels during a press conference following a two-day meeting of the European Council, the last one under the Swedish presidency of the EU, reports Censor.NЕТ with reference to Ukrinform.
"During your presidency, we managed to form a strong European unity in support of Ukraine. We saw over the weekend the attempted coup of the Wagner Group and the obvious cracks in Putin's system. Now is the time to really redouble our support for Ukraine, and this has been reflected in the discussion of many topics, for example, from a military point of view, on the initiative of your presidency," Ursula von der Leyen said, addressing Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.
She reminded that during the Swedish presidency, the EU countries agreed to use 2 billion euros from the European Peace Fund to order ammunition for Ukraine. According to the President of the European Commission, Ukraine has already received more than 220,000 shells and more than 2,000 missiles. Thus, the EU is confidently moving towards its goal of supplying Ukraine with 1 million artillery shells over the next 12 months.
"By the end of the year, we were supposed to provide training for 30,000 Ukrainian servicemen. Now we have already reached the number of 24,000, so we are exceeding the pace of achieving our goal, in particular thanks to the help of your presidency," von der Leyen said.
According to her, from a financial point of view, during the almost 500 days of the war unleashed by Russia, the EU and its members have provided Ukraine with assistance worth more than 70 billion euros. Only last week, the European Commission transferred €9 billion to Ukraine out of a total macro-financial assistance package of €18 billion for 2023.
