Under pressure from overly cautious military aid to Kyiv, Germany is beginning to relax its uncompromising stance. “Ukraine needs more support, especially heavy weapons,” said Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on the fringes of the European Council in Luxembourg. “It’s not a time for pretense, but for creativity and pragmatism”. A line that certainly won’t meet with any resistance within the Commission, which has for some time committed itself to “maximum” aid to Ukraine. And that she is already considering new sanctions against Russia. However, as widely expected, the time is not yet ripe for oil. Ministers have discussed it, said EU High Representative Josep Borrell, but “no decision has been made”.
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Scholz specified
When it comes to arms deliveries to Ukraine, Germany acts “in close cooperation with friendly countries with whom we are consulting, and there will be no individual action, only joint and justified actions.” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said this at a press conference in Berlin with the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama. Scholz was answering a question about the words of Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who today urged the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine. The chancellor recalled that he had broken “with a long tradition” of previous governments when exporting arms to countries at war.
The sanctions for gas and oil
The energy issue is very contentious given the dependency of some EU Member States. “It’s easy to demand that those who don’t have it stop Russian gas,” admitted Borrell, who also advocates taking a hard line with the Kremlin. “Go to Kyiv as much as possible,” warned journalists at the opening of the council (he has just returned from his visit with President Ursula von der Leyen). Because that is the only way to understand what is at stake for Europe. Even the penalties suddenly change colour. “The fighting that we will see in eastern Ukraine would also take place with the embargo on Russian oil and gas: what makes the difference now is military aid,” he stressed. Translation, there is no time.
The sixth sanctions package
However, the question of tightening restrictive measures towards Russia is “always on the table, the Berlaymont is already working on the sixth package with the oil option in it, and then it will be up to the capital to decide what to do. Because, as the Spaniard José Manuel Albares Bueno stressed, it is okay “to avoid Vladimir Putin financing his war with European money, but “we must also ensure that European countries that are dependent on Russian energy do not be destabilized”. And that is the dilemma of the moment. The goal, Borrell reminded, is now clear: to achieve “European strategic energy autonomy thanks to renewable energies and hydrogen. But even here it takes time.
war crimes
The other front of commitments is that of legal assistance to Ukraine to ensure that war crimes committed by the Russians are punished. The 27 is compact in this case. A meeting was held before the Council with the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Karim Khan, who has already launched investigations thanks to the mandate received from over 40 countries around the world. “We will give him every possible support through our diplomatic mission in Kyiv, which we have reopened,” Borrell said. As well as the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office. “The work of the court is one of the most important processes to achieve justice for the Ukrainian people,” said Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra, urging colleagues to take the lead to ensure The Hague has the necessary resources the Netherlands set this, for example, by donating an additional million to the Court’s budget.