War in Ukraine: EU gives another €500 million in military aid to Ukrainians

The foreign ministers of its countries The European Union agreed to give a 500 million euro military aid package to the Ukraine. The bloc’s support for Ukraine’s security has reached €2.5 billion since its inception of Russian invasion on February 24.

“Today (18/7) at the summit of the European Union foreign ministers we reached a political agreement on the 5th package of military aid to Ukraine”its foreign minister argued Sweden, If Linde.

The money will help the EU continue to jointly buy military equipment and supplies with the Ukrainians and then provide the supplies to the Ukrainian armed forces. Military equipment includes lethal weapons, which according to the European Union should be used for defensive purposes.

European Union laws normally bar the bloc from using money from its seven-year budget to finance military operations, but the European Peace Facility Agreement, which has a cap of five billion, is outside the budget and can be used to provide military aid.

In the meantime, the foreign ministers also discussed the ban on the import of gold products from Russiawhich is said to be the most significant measure in the EU’s limited plan to cause problems for the Russian economy and the financing of its war machine.

The highest representative of the EU’s foreign policy, Giuseppe Borrell, emphasized that the ban on Russian gold is a reinforcing measure “which will improve the implementation of sanctions that already exist” and hinted that this is not a 7th package sanctions to Russia. Of course, Ukraine continues to push for a new package of sanctions against Russia in order to increase pressure on its economy in an effort to reduce its ability to financially support military operations on Ukrainian soil.