Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova's reply to a media question regarding the EU decision to allocate an additional 500 million euros for arms supplies to Ukraine

25 July 2022 21:41
1538-25-07-2022

Question: How would you comment on the European Union's decision to allocate an additional 500 million euros for arms supplies to Ukraine?

Maria Zakharova: This shows that the EU is completely unprepared to facilitate a political settlement in Ukraine. By providing the Ukrainians with weapons and military equipment, the EU continues to invest in continuing hostilities. At the same time, it is saying hypocritically that it offered an olive branch to Russia. Any attempts to achieve victory on the battlefield is a direct road into the abyss for both Kiev and Brussels.

The European Peace Foundation was established just over 12 months ago. As it delivers weapons, it would therefore be more correct to call it the War Foundation. Since its inception, the Foundation has already spent 2.5 billion euros on weapons for Ukraine. This accounts for almost 50 percent of its budget up to 2027. Consequently, the EU sponsors should assume the same responsibility as the Kiev regime for the war crimes committed by the armed forces of Ukraine and nationalist battalions for the murders of civilians, women, senior citizens and children and for the destruction of the civilian infrastructure, including bridges.

Some other glaring manifestations of double standards completely discredit the EU, which proclaims the primacy of the law as one of its pillars yet tends to grossly violate its own regulations on arms deliveries to third-party countries. These regulations are formalised in the EU Council's Common Position 2008/944/CFSP December 8, 2008, defining common rules governing control of exports of military technology and equipment. Obviously, the Western paradigm of a rules-based international order implies that those who invent these rules do not necessarily have to comply with them. What is important for them is that everyone else follows them.

In the past five months, the West has been pumping weapons to Ukraine without respite, all the while trying to hush up the unpleasant fact that this policy spells unprecedented risks for the domestic security of the EU and its citizens. The West also overlooked rampant corruption among the authorities in Kiev. Everything was sacrificed to the ambitions of certain EU leaders and its member countries striving to inflict maximum possible damage on Russia.

Now the EU and its law enforcement agency, Europol, are forced to openly admit that the weapons supplied to Ukraine have started surfacing in European countries and replenishing the arsenals of local organised crime groups. In fact, we had insistently warned them about this at the time.

It is hardly surprising that on July 11, the EU launched its Support Hub for Internal Security and Border Management in Moldova. Its key tasks include efforts to prevent arms and migrants from infiltrating the EU member states. However, one doubts the effectiveness of this measure because instead of stopping arms deliveries to Ukraine, Brussels prefers to wage an a priori losing battle with all ensuing consequences.

Is the EU becoming a party to the conflict?