Check against delivery! 

Opening remarks 

Thank you madame President, Minister Honourable Members,  

It is imperative that we, as European Union, together with Member States, continue to use all the tools at our disposal to assist Ukraine, its military defence, its economy, its citizens and support it on its EU accession path, in line with the EU-Ukraine joint security commitments signed in June.  

All aspects of our support are linked and inter-connected. Security and defence goes hand in hand with support to accession related reforms, and with the support to recovery and reconstruction. And EU’s accession is the ultimate guarantee that the European Union can offer. 

As shown by the Ukraine report under this year’s enlargement package, Ukraine has continued to demonstrate remarkable resilience and strong commitment to fundamental reforms, despite the ongoing Russian war of aggression. 

The overall assistance to Ukraine and its people, by the European Union and its Member States, amounts to about €124 billion.  

The Ukraine Facility is delivering, with the total financing expected to be more than €16 billion by the end of the year to support Ukraine’s most pressing financing needs. Its second pillar, the Ukraine Investment Framework will support investments in critical reconstruction projects. 

Around €45.5 billion have been mobilised in military support, of which €6.1 billion via the European Peace Facility. This helps providing a wide variety of arms necessary for Ukraine to repel the Russian aggression. 

The European Union has committed and delivered 1 million ammunition shells. At the same time, we ramped up the production capacity of our own industry. This improved production capacity will not only help long-term assistance to Ukraine but also replenish our own stocks. By helping Ukraine, we are also building up our own security. 

Ukraine is now also able to operate F16 fighter jets thanks to the Netherlands, Denmark and others.  

Additionally, we have mobilised €1.5 billion in windfall profits from frozen Russian assets. 90% of this first tranche will be channelled through the European Peace Facility to deliver priority equipment, including artillery ammunition and air defence, and for the first time direct procurement from the Ukrainian defence industry. For the next tranche of expected €1.9 billion, we proposed to allocate €1 billion to the Ukrainian industry.  

Our EU Military Assistance Mission to Ukraine will hit the target of 75,000 Ukrainian soldiers trained by the end of the winter.  

However, we know that the current level of assistance remains insufficient to tilt the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine’s favour. We know that Russia has put its entire economy on a wartime footing and counts on the military backing of North Korea and Iran as well as the substantial support provided by China.  

We need to step up our assistance: Ukraine urgently needs more air defence, more ammunition and more long-range weapons. 

Our support to Ukraine must be scaled up. The European Union will continue to coordinate with its Member States to increase our military support and to adapt our aid to Ukraine needs. The European Union will also continue to work with Member States to provide all the necessary political, military, financial assistance that Ukraine needs to win. It is very important to continue such kind of support during the war now, but we need also – I would say – to continue to work on the fight against impunity to be sure it is possible to bring the responsible people for such a war of aggression to justice. And we need to continue to work to be sure that Russia will pay for the compensation of the damage caused by the Russian aggression against Ukraine. 

So, be sure that we want to continue our full support during the war. but we want also to continue of actions about the accountability of the Russian authorities and for all the crimes committed in Ukraine. 

Thank you very much for your support and your attention.  

Link to video (starting at 4:17) : https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-264331  

Closing remarks  

Thank you, Madam President, Minister, Honourable Members, 

This debate illustrates the need to continue the European Union’s support to Ukraine. The European Union and its Member States have done a lot, but the needs remain huge.  

Let me stress that this extraordinary assistance is an investment in the European Union’s future: Ukraine has to be able to successfully defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity, also for our own security.  

The deployment of troops from North Korea to support Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine is a dangerous escalation of the war by Russia. And a serious consequence for Europeans and global peace and security. We strongly condemn it.  

In addition, the transfer of arms and millions of artillery shells from North Korea to Russia, is yet another blatant violation by Russia of international law, including the United Nations Charter, as well as several United Nations Security Resolutions adopted with Russia’s support. 

It sends a clear message: Russia is not sincerely interested in a just, comprehensive and lasting peace, but is escalating and directly seeking support for its war.  

You have rightly pointed out issues requiring further work. We have indeed gradually moved from the one-off solutions at the outset of the invasion to more systemic assistance mechanisms. 

Our support to Ukraine will remain a crucial priority of the next Commission and High Representative-designate [Kaja] Kallas.  

We will do more to put European Union assistance on a more sustainable, predictable footing. This is essential to strengthen Ukraine now and for its recovery once the long-awaited peace is restored. 

Thank you very much. 

Link to video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-264332