The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, said Wednesday that he was «personally in favor» of sending tanks to Ukraine to support the country in the face of the Russian invasion and warned that they «urgently» need to receive more means to continue «resisting».
«The time is now: they urgently need more equipment and I am personally in favor of supplying tanks to Ukraine,» Michel said in a speech to the plenary of the European Parliament to take stock of the last summit of EU heads of state and government held last December in Brussels.
In this way, Michel recalled that almost a year after Vladimir Putin’s regime launched its «strategy of destruction and terror» to invade Ukraine, the country «is resisting and will continue to resist».
The European Union «will continue to support them for as long as necessary», stressed the President of the European Council, who emphasized that the bloc will maintain its «military support» to Ukraine, especially by increasing the European fund to send arms.
Also the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has affirmed that the EU «will remain by Ukraine’s side as long as necessary», while recalling that this week the bloc has unblocked a first tranche of 3 billion euros of the total of 18 billion euros in macro-financial aid that they have planned to provide to Kiev throughout 2023.
Michel’s position on urgently responding to Ukraine’s military needs comes in the midst of the international debate on how to respond to Kiev, which is asking the global community to send tanks to continue the fighting against Russia in the Donbas region.
Germany, manufacturer of the ‘Leopard’ battle tanks, has to authorize the shipment to a third country, a matter that has generated internal tensions in the country about the advisability of taking the step and also with European partners such as Poland, which are demanding decisive action from Berlin to stop the Russian troops.
In the case of Spain, the possibility of sending tanks to Ukraine «is not on the table», according to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, EU and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, who, however, said that it will be an issue to be addressed by the defense ministers who on Friday are meeting in Germany in the framework of the military contact group for Ukraine, in which more than 40 countries led by the United States are coordinating their support.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
