Ukraine war briefing: EU cements first ever joint arms purchases in boost for Ukraine
The EU has for the first time funded member states’ joint procurement of weapons, including missiles and ammunition, which will in part be sent to Ukraine. It had previously financed arms purchases for Ukraine ad hoc and from outside its budget. The European Commission vice-president Margrethe Vestager said the EU was investing €300 million to help groups of up to nine member countries buy air defence systems, armoured vehicles and artillery ammunition. “Importantly, the selected projects will also increase our support to Ukraine with additional defence equipment.” The EU has been working to boost its defence industry to arm Ukraine and build up its own forces. It fell short of a promise to supply Kyiv with a million artillery shells by the end of March 2024, but the EU diplomacy chief, Josep Borrell, has vowed the goal will be reached before the end of the year.
The Ukrainian foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, on Thursday said he hoped Marco Rubio, Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of state, would pursue a policy of “peace through strength”. Rubio in the past advocated an assertive US foreign policy with respect to America’s geopolitical foes, but has recently aligned more closely with Trump’s “America First” approach. In April, Rubio was one of 15 Republican senators to vote against a big military aid package to Ukraine and other US partners. In recent interviews, he has said that Ukraine should seek a negotiated settlement rather than focus on regaining its territory.
A Russian attack on Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa on Thursday hit a residential building, knocked out a heating supply boiler plant and damaged a pipeline, officials said. “Yet another terrorist act in Odesa. A strike on a residential building,” said the regional governor, Oleh Kiper. Unofficial Telegram-based news outlets posted a video of a building in flames, with firefighting equipment stationed nearby. “The enemy attack has damaged the main pipeline for heating supplies,” said the Odesa mayor, Hennadiy Trukhanov. “One of the city’s boiler plants has been forced to shut down.”
Several exiled Russian opposition figures will stage an anti-war, anti-Kremlin demonstration in Berlin this weekend. The rally is the first organised by three of the most high-profile opposition figures – Yulia Navalnaya, Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza – and comes at a critical time for the movement. Many Ukrainians feel the Russian opposition has shown ambiguity over the invasion and could do more to put pressure on Putin. Navalnaya said the rally aims to “show that a lot of Russians are against Putin and against the war … [that there is] another Russia, that is not militaristic and is free”. But in an interview with the exiled Russian TV station Dozhd, she admitted there was “no plan” among the opposition on how to end Putin’s 24-year rule.
Germany has refused to allow a Russian liquefied natural gas shipment into the Brunsbuttel terminal in northern Germany in line with Berlin’s policy not to import LNG from Russia, industry sources said on Thursday. “The cargo was destined for Brunsbuttel and someone tried its luck and it seems wanted to check how Berlin would react,” an industry source told the Reuters news agency, adding that this is “a bit of political PR stunt”. It was not clear who ordered the shipment, which left the Yamal LNG facility in Russia carried by three tankers. Germany has never directly imported Russian LNG and stopped buying Russian pipeline gas following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. It has relied on LNG from the US and elsewhere as well as pipeline gas from Norway since to replace Russian gas.