EU Summit calls for urgent air defence aid to Ukraine amid war
18 April 2024 08:32, updated: 18 April 2024 10:24
The European Council emphasizes the urgent need to provide Ukraine with air defence, as agreed upon by the leaders of the 27 EU member states during an extraordinary summit in Brussels.
A section of the summit's final document states, "The European Council underlines the need to provide air defence to Ukraine urgently and to speed up and intensify the delivery of all the necessary military assistance, including artillery ammunition and missiles."
It was further stated that military support would be provided "while respecting the specific character of the security and defence policy of certain Member States".
Additionally, leaders expressed their satisfaction with the progress in legislative proposals aimed at redirecting extraordinary revenues from Russia's immobilized assets to the benefit of Ukraine.
The European Union and its Member States will intensify the provision of humanitarian and civil protection assistance, including equipment such as power generators and power transformers.
During the meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky joined the summit participants.
- During the European Council's special meeting, I informed EU leaders of another Russian terrorist attack on our city of Chernihiv. And this is happening every day. This reflects our current key need – the need for air defense. Unfortunately, in Ukraine and our part of Europe, we do not have the level of defense that we saw in the Middle East a few days ago - the Ukrainian president reported in a post on the X platform.
- Our Ukrainian sky and our neighbors' skies deserve the same level of security. And I appreciate everyone who sees our need for security as a need for equal security for all, because all lives are equally valuable. We all now need to outplay Putin with our determination so that this war can finally begin to move toward a just end. I believe in peace and I am confident in Europe's strength - added Zelensky.
