Borrell: “EU military stocks running out due to aid to kyiv”

Josep Borrell, said on Sunday, May 22, that the EU’s military supplies have run out. He called one of the reasons for this the provision of military aid to Ukraine.

The European diplomat considered that the depletion of the union’s military reserves due to military assistance to kyiv is “the most obvious example of the lack of defense capacity” of the European Union.

Borrell added that, among other reasons that influenced the current situation of the EU’s defense capacity, there is a reduction in the defense budget, which is caused by the austerity policy, writes RIA Novosti.

The head of European diplomacy also recalled that the defense spending of the members of the union began to decline since the beginning of the crisis in 2008, reaching a minimum in 2014. Only now, according to Borrell, this figure has reached the level prior to the crisis.

Last Monday, May 16, the Foreign Ministers of 27 EU countries approved a decision to allocate another 500 million euros to Ukraine for the purchase of weapons from the European Peace Fund.

From 1999 to 2021, the EU’s total defense spending grew by just 20 percent, while that of the United States grew by 66 percent and Russia’s by 292 percent.