European Council President, Charles Michel, has disclosed that the EU will hold a summit on February 1, 2024, to discuss and settle revisions to its multi-annual budget, including funding for Ukraine.
EU leaders agreed last week to open membership talks with Ukraine, but they could not agree on a 50 billion euro ($54.6 billion) package of financial aid for Kyiv due to opposition from Hungary.
“We understood on Thursday and Friday that a bit more time is needed with Hungary in order to make a decision by unanimity, which is needed for an agreement on the MFF (Multi-annual Financial Framework) review,” Michel said at a joint news conference.
Michel said that besides funding for Ukraine, the 27-nation EU also had proposals to provide more financial support to address migration, to cover natural disasters and for security and defence.
According to Brig Gen Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, Ukraine has scaled back some military operations because of a lack of foreign assistance.
He said that frontline Ukrainian soldiers are currently facing shortages of artillery shells.
The senior army general said this in reference to last week’s incidents where U.S Republican lawmakers held up a $60bn package and Hungary blocked €50bn in EU funding for Kyiv.
Tarnavskyi said, “There’s a problem with ammunition, especially post-Soviet (shells) – that’s 122 mm, 152 mm. And today these problems exist across the entire frontline.”
He noted, “The volumes that we have today are not sufficient for us today, given our needs.”
“So, we’re redistributing it. We’re replanning tasks that we had set for ourselves and making them smaller because we need to provide for them,” he added.
Tarnavskyi stressed that the shortage of artillery shells was a significant issue for Ukraine, but also noted that Russian forces faced ammunition problems.
Also, citing data from the UN human rights office, Gyunduz Mamedov, a former deputy prosecutor general of Ukraine, said that at least 31 Ukrainian civilians were killed by mines and explosive remnants of war, and 98 others injured between 1 August and 30 November 2023.
Meanwhile, Danish Ministry of Defence said in a statement on Monday that Denmark has set aside 1.8b Danish crowns ($264m) to help finance a Swedish initiative to donate CV90 armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine.
Sweden has already donated 50 CV90s to the country in its war with Russia.
The Danish donation would help finance production of more such vehicles, spare parts, ammunition and a multi-year maintenance agreement, the ministry said.
EU Council Adopts 12th Package Of Sanctions Against Russia
Also on Monday, the EU Council adopted a 12th package of sanctions against Russia, the European Commission disclosed.
This package focuses on imposing additional import and export bans on Russia, combating sanctions circumvention and closing loopholes, the council said.
Among the sanctions is the prohibition on the direct or indirect import, purchase or transfer ofdiamonds, including jewellery, from Russia.
The agreed package also includes the following measures: no russia clause (a new clause which applies to EU exporters and bans the re-exportation to Russia and re-exportation for use in Russia of certain goods), tighter export restrictions concerning dual use goods and technologies and enforcement of oil price cap
further restrictions on imports of goods which generate significant revenues for Russia such as; pig iron, copper and aluminium wires, foil tubes and pipes, as well as prohibition on the import of liquefied propane are part of the package.
The package also added 140 additional individuals and entities as subject to asset freezes, including actors in the Russian military and defence industry, private military companies and includes actors from the IT sector.
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