Brussels, 1 October 2023
Yesterday, I was on the front line of the military aggression of Russia against Ukraine. I was in Odesa, where I had the opportunity to witness the way Russia is attacking civil infrastructure, churches, houses in such a beautiful city as Odesa.
Today, I had the honour to participate in the commemoration of the Ukrainian Day of Defenders, a day to honour the women and men who stand up against Russia’s aggression, fighting every day, risking their lives, fighting for their country’s future, and also in the defence of the international order. Yes, it has been a very moving ceremony today, and I had the opportunity to exchange with some of the soldiers injured in the combat, who were present at the ceremony.
And now, just a moment ago, I have been visiting another front line, the front line of the information war, because there is a war being fought with classical arms or warfare, and there is another war, which is the war of information.
[It is] Nothing new, the war of information has always existed, but now is being used massively and Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is being accompanied by massive, what we call hybrid attacks, which means propaganda, manipulation of information, disinformation campaigns, and also cyber-attacks on the information networks.
We have to counter this hybrid war, and in particular, we have to fight against disinformation. That’s a high priority for the European Union and Ukraine.
And I am happy to visit this Centre, for the people who work here in order to fight this battle against propaganda, which we see developing on a large scale. We see that in Africa, we see that in Latin America and in Asia.
Through these war of propaganda and disinformation, Russia is trying to deflect its responsibility for the war, denying the occupation, annexations, atrocities, blaming others for the consequences of the food and energy crises, and trying to make the world to believe that the same power who is blocking the export of grain from the Ukrainian ports is innocent of the hunger, and “the hunger is not created by the naval blockade of the Russian navy”. [They say:] “No, no, it is [not] created by us, is created by Ukraine and is created by the West.”
We have to fight against twisted narratives, which as I said is nothing new. We have been witnessing this kind of stories and narrative during the Cold War, and more recently since the annexation of Crimea. And we have to fight this battle. We have to win this battle because it is not only about the territory, it’s about the minds of the people.
And that’s why we have to build organisations and support entities like the one that I just visited – the Ukrainian Centre for Strategic Communication and Information Security. This Centre is at the forefront of fighting against Russia disinformation.
But believe me, the disinformation ecosystem put in place by the Kremlin is [there] not only to undermine Ukraine. They try to undermine the international support to Ukraine. They try to make people consider this war [yet] another war by Europeans that has nothing to do with them. Another war that has to stop.
And yes, we want the war to stop. And the ones who want the war to stop as soon as possible, are the Ukrainians who are suffering the consequences. I was witnessing this over the past days.
But Russia has not a positive narrative agenda on cooperation, it has not a narrative on peace and that’s why we have to continue the debunking and fighting against twisted and misleading narratives. We try to do that in cooperation with this Centre, supporting it, assisting Ukrainian society, which is a strong and resilient society as it proves it every day.
It is the way that we could promote the truth about Putin’s aggression, exposing Russian lies to the entire world. And because we are here for that, we are here -like we are working also in Brussels – with the efforts undertaken by the European Union. On that, also the European Union and Ukraine are supporting the same purpose: Ukraine should prevail and the truth too. Thank you.
Q&A
Question: I have a question about your visit in Kyiv today. You wrote on Twitter that you met with our new Defence Minister. Maybe you can tell us a little bit more about the topics that you have discussed and maybe about any decision that you have made with our new minister.
Well, it was a pleasure to meet in person your new Defence Minister. I had an opportunity to talk with him on the phone [before] – first to congratulate him for his nomination and to wish him all the best on his difficult endeavour. And today, we had had the opportunity of meeting and sharing information, discussing about the situation on the ground from military perspective, our support to the Ukrainian army from a military point of view.
I cannot tell you everything that we have exchanged [on], as you can understand, but it has been a meeting in order to identify the priorities of the Defence Minister, to tell him what we are doing, what we could do more, what are the most pressing necessities from the point of view of our ammunitions, training, providing arms and for what kind of battle.
And also to try to understand better why, in some cases, our support is not being perceived as important as it is. Because it is. And I want to stress the figures and I explained to the minister: our military support to Ukraine has reached the figure of 25 billion euros. And altogether, military, civilian and humanitarian [support] has reached the figure of 85 billion euros, which is – together from European institutions and Member States – the highest amount in the world and we are proud of it and we know how important it is. And I assured the minister that, yes, we will work for peace, but in the meantime, we have to continue supporting him [fighting]. We reviewed all the aspects of all our cooperation, and we are committed to continue working together.
Question: I have two questions. The first one is about recent news. The US Congress has approved a temporary budget but without aid to Ukraine. And I would like to ask you whether the European Union has any kind of plan in case of any delays with American aid. And the second question about military support. This March, the European Union members made an unprecedented plan to deliver 1 million rounds ammunition within 12 months. How this process is going on? Is there any information about numbers we have right now and maybe future numbers?
I understand the interest that everybody has about the recent decision in the American Congress. Well, a couple of days ago, it was another vote, in which the Democrats and part of the Republicans – part, not all, but part of it, voted in favour of allocating €300 million to the Ukrainian forces. So, we believe that we’re on track.
And to tell the truth, we were surprised by the fact that in a last-minute agreement a decision was taken, that we have to regret deeply and thoroughly, and we believe is not the last word. After listening to President Biden, who made a call for the decision to be reconsidered, I have a hope that this will not be a definitive decision, and Ukraine will continue having the support of the US.
From our side, we have not waited for the [US] decision to be taken to increase our propositions to support Ukraine. Well before yesterday, the Commission announced a proposition to the Member States of a Ukrainian fund with €50 billion. And I proposed in Toledo in the last informal meeting [of EU Foreign Ministers in August], I made to my colleagues a proposition to create inside the European Peace Facility a specific fund allocated to Ukraine with up to 20 billion for the next four years.
Well, the discussion continues. The whole thing has to be considered together, but it shows that our support to Ukraine not only continues, but increases, or at least by the time being, the provision on the table shows that we want to continue increasing it. And we hope member states will decide it together with a financial perspective before the end of the year. So, let’s see what’ll be happening in the US but from our side we will continue supporting and increasing our support.
On ammunition. We have been asking the member States to deploy capacities in order to provide Ukrainian army with the stockpiles they have. And now we are asking European industry to increase their production capacity. And we created a plan in order for member states to go together to present their request, their demands to the industry in order to shorten the delay in producing, shorten the production time and increasing the production capacity. On the figures, by the time being I think that we are reaching almost 300,000 ammunitions [rounds] already sent to Ukraine, I talking about 155 mm, plus about 2800 missiles. It’s still not everything that we have to provide, but we are, I think, on a good track
[We are] Using three tracks: asking the European armies to provide what they already have, asking the industry to increase their capacity and asking member States to go together for common procurement in order to shorten delays and decreasing prices.
Question: I need a position from you about the results of the Slovak elections. Mr. Robert Fico said before that if he wins the support of Slovakia to Ukraine is going to change. What do you think about that, please?
Well, first of all, my respect for the decision of the electors expressing their political will in free elections in any European country. It is not up to me to say whether I like or not a result of elections. The result of the elections is up to the European citizens in each member state to and we accept it, their freedom of choice. And secondly, let’s see, until now and since the beginning of the war, the EU Member States have shown an incredible and quick unity and have taken decisions to support Ukraine. I think that that was Putin’s first surprise seeing that European Union Member States were united and in spite of their strong energy dependency, we were able to approve one after the other, many sanctions packages and using the resources of the European Peace Facility to provide arms to Ukraine and increasing the amount of new resources day by day. And this has been possible thanks to the unanimity of all Member States, even the most reluctant [ones]. Some of them, at least one of them expressed doubts, but voted in favour, expressed doubts, but paid their contribution. So let’s see what’s happening with respect to this unanimity to continue.
Question: Did the Ukrainian Defence Minister tell you that Ukraine could make further gains before the end of the offensive? And if not, if there is a stalemate on the ground, how do you convince the European public not just to continue supporting Ukraine but as you just said, increase support for Ukraine?
Our support to Ukraine doesn’t depend on how the war is going on in the next days or weeks. The Ukrainian soldiers are fighting with a lot of courage in front of impressive Russian defence fortifications. The satellite images show that in some cases, this fortifications run 25 kilometres deep and wide. So the counteroffensive is difficult, there you’re fighting in a territory completely mined, that makes it very difficult to use mechanised warfare in order to advance quicker.
So, our support is not conjunctural, is doesn’t depend on the advances of one day. It’s a permanent structured support because we are facing an existential threat for Europe. An existential threat cannot be balanced by the “assault de la guerre” one day or another. The Ukrainians are fighting with all their courage and capacities, and if we want them to be more successful we have to provide them with better arms and quicker.
Question: You many times said that the European Union has a plan by the end of this year to train up to 40,000 Ukrainian soldiers. Do you have a reason to continue this mission for the next year to continue to train Ukrainian soldiers? Also, I would like to ask whether it’s agreed a date in order to hold EU council in Kyiv on the level of foreign ministers and do you think that European Union Member States will approve your plan for €20 billion for a period of four years, because there are some signals that this could be delayed or postponed because of some positions of specific members.
I know how decisions are taken in the European Union – it is not overnight that we decide these important issues. Ministers are discussing and I’m sure, by the end of the year when we approve the whole package of Multiannual Financial Perspective review, these will be decided, but I cannot tell you if it will be next week or next month, but it will be done in appropriate time.
Thank you.
Watch the video here: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-247044
Source – EEAS