Kyiv Independent reported that on January 22, Vice President of the European Commission, Prime Minister of Estonia and known as the EU's top diplomat, Ms. Kaja Kallas urged the bloc to act more decisively to deal with Russia's defense spending three times higher than before the Ukraine conflict.
Speaking at a meeting of the European Defense Agency, Ms. Kallas said that in the next 3 to 5 years, Russia will threaten the EU's self-defense capabilities, and called on members to increase defense budgets and strengthen military cooperation with each other.
The Prime Minister affirmed: "Ukraine is the front line of defense of Europe", but stressed the urgency in supporting Ukraine to achieve peace through strength.
The EU has pledged more than €130bn in aid to Ukraine, including nearly €50bn in military aid. Member states have also trained 75,000 Ukrainian soldiers and imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia. But the EU’s top diplomat is adamant that more needs to be done.
Also on January 22, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius expressed his agreement with Ms. Kallas’s concerns. Mr. Pistorius warned of the risk of Russia attacking NATO in the next 5 to 6 years thanks to rapid advances in the military field.
On January 13, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that members of the US-led military bloc need to increase defense spending sharply if they do not want to be pressured or even threatened by Russia.
To deal with these challenges, the EU is drafting a Readiness Strategy aimed at improving the capacity to work cohesively among the 27 member states, rather than creating a unified European army.
However, the European Commissioner for Defense and Space said that increasing the production of weapons and ammunition to support Ukraine in the coming years will be difficult to implement, although the EU has planned to produce 2 million artillery shells in 2025.
According to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Europe's weapons production capacity is still far behind Russia's. It would take the EU a year to do what Moscow did in three months.
