Ensuring The Increase In European Union Support, Josep Borrell: Ukrainian People Fight With All Courage

President Zelensky welcomes Josep Borrell in Kyiv (Twitter/@JosepBorellF)

JAKARTA - EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Sunday the bloc would increase military support for Ukraine after the United States Congress passed a short-term funding bill but did not include aid to Ukraine.

Borrell said on the sidelines of his visit to Kyiv, in the face of a "real threat to Europe, "the existing proposition" suggests the European Union wants to increase military aid to Ukraine.

This was conveyed after his first face-to-face meeting with the new Ukrainian Defense Minister was appointed last month, Rustem Umerov.

"Let's see what happens in the US, but from our side, we will continue to support and increase our support," Borrell said.

"The Ukrainian people are fighting with all their courage and capacity," Borrell continued.

"If the EU wants them to be more successful, we have to give them better and bigger weapons," he said.

In a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Borrell said the bloc was preparing a "long-term security commitment to Ukraine".

He told a news conference he hoped member states would reach a decision on increasing aid "before the end of the year".

Meanwhile, Umerov, whose appointment by President Volodymyr Zelensky was approved by parliament on September 6, thanked Borrell in a statement on X for his continued support and said the meeting was a "earpoint for great cooperation".

He added that their discussions on EU military assistance included "artillery and ammunition, air defense, EW (electronic warfare) and long-term aid programs, training to defense industry localization," in Ukraine.

This week, the European Defense Agency answered a Reuters question that seven European Union countries had ordered ammunition through procurement schemes to deliver much-needed artillery to Ukraine, recharging exhausted Western supplies.