EU’s von der Leyen Says Ukraine Should Get All Arms It Wants

INA-  Sources 

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called on allies to provide Ukraine all the military aid it’s asking for to press back Russia’s invasion as Kyiv makes gains in a counteroffensive. 

“Ukraine should get all the military material they need,” von der Leyen, the chief of the EU’s executive arm, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Thursday in Kyiv.

A day after the head of the EU’s executive pledged to ease Ukraine’s way into the bloc’s vast single market to help its economy, von der Leyen made her third visit to Kyiv since the war began on Feb. 24. She held talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who had just returned from a visit to Izyum, the largest city retaken by Ukrainian forces as part of a stunning counteroffensive against Russian troops.

Ukraine’s military has proven that “if they have the military capabilities, they do defend themselves,” von der Leyen told Bloomberg.

A former German defense minister, von der Leyen spoke as pressure was growing on European leaders such as Chancellor Olaf Scholz to ratchet up deliveries of heavy weaponry and tanks to Ukraine. 

The commission chief added that EU member states are working on amending the latest sanction package to accommodate the Group of Seven agreement to impose a cap on prices for Russian oil by Dec. 5, when the bloc’s prohibition of Russian crude comes into force. 
“We know that we have to be fast on that one,” she said.