Politicians “should have listened” to warnings about Russian president Vladimir Putin from allies in central and eastern Europe, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has said.
In her first public address since winning a second term in the powerful EU role, Ms von der Leyen criticised those within the 27 member states who sought to undermine Ukraine in its war with Russia.
EU countries close to Russian territory had been warning the rest of the bloc about Mr Putin’s intentions for years, she said. “We should have better listened to central and eastern Europe,” Ms von der Leyen said.
Speaking at a security conference in Prague on Friday, Ms von der Leyen said those who advocated for an end to military support for Ukraine were in favour of “appeasement” rather than peace. “Some politicians inside our union, and even in this part of Europe, are muddying the waters of our conversation about Ukraine,” she said. “They blame the war not on the invader but on the invaded,” she said.
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“Would you ever blame Hungarians for the Soviet invasion of 1956? Would you ever blame Czechs for the Soviet repression in 1968? The answer is very clear: The Kremlin’s behaviour was illegal and atrocious back then and it is illegal and atrocious today.”
The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was an “eye-opener for Europe”, the German politician told the conference. Europe’s dependency on Russian gas had been an “asset in Putin’s hands” at the start of the conflict. The Russian leader had been happy to let his country suffer economically to pursue his “imperial ambitions”, she said.
The commission president called for a “systemic overhaul of Europe’s defence”, but added that it would take time for countries to increase the size of their defence industries.
Defence and security is expected to be one of the main issues dominating the agenda of European politics over the coming years. As part of a reshuffle of portfolios at the top of the European Commission, Ms von der Leyen plans to create an EU commissioner for defence. The president is weighing up what jobs to allocate candidates each EU country has nominated as their next commissioner.
Separately, defence ministers and diplomats from EU countries met in Brussels on Friday, where they discussed the bloc’s support for Ukraine in the war.
One issue raised was Ukraine’s request that it be allowed to use missiles supplied by western allies to strike military targets deep in Russian territory, such as airfields used by Russian bombers.
Speaking at a press conference afterwards, Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, said he favoured the restrictions on Ukraine hitting military targets in Russia being lifted. Any suggestion that this would amount to EU countries being at war with Russia was an “exaggeration”, Mr Borrell said.
During the meeting member states decided the question of whether Ukraine could fire long-range missiles in to Russia would be left up to the individual countries who had supplied the weapons.
The first tranche of funding drawn from the windfall profits of frozen Russian assets, amounting to €1.4 billion, had recently been funnelled to Ukraine to boost its defence industry, Mr Borrell said.
A further €6.6 billion in funding from EU countries is being blocked, with Hungary using its veto to hold up the release of the funds. The meeting of defence ministers heard it was “urgent” that some workaround be found to get the funding to Ukraine, Mr Borrell said.
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