EU foreign policy chief says all members agree to continue boosting their own defenses

BRUSSELS

European defense ministers have agreed on the urgent need to strengthen the bloc’s defenses as Russia “unlikely to honor any agreement for long,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday.

“Everyone agreed that Europe must continue to boost its own defences. We do not have much time to act. (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is unlikely to honour any agreement for long,” she said.

Kallas said the EU and member states have already provided more than €187 billion ($217 billion) to Ukraine and stressed that stronger military support will reinforce Kyiv both “on the battlefield and at the negotiation table.”

On Belgium’s reservations about the proposed reparations loan based on Russia’s frozen sovereign assets, Kallas said the mechanism remains “the most viable option,” urging member states to jointly mitigate risks.

“This is clear that Russia owes reparations for the damages that they have caused to Ukraine, and the reparations loan based on the frozen sovereign assets of Russia, is actually the right basis for it,” she said.

Kallas cautioned that international pressure could shift toward urging Ukraine to make concessions in future negotiations, warning that such an approach would reward Russia.

“I am afraid that all the pressure will be put on the weaker side, because that is the easier way to stop this war when Ukraine surrenders. But this is not in anybody's interest, not in the interest of Ukraine, not in the interest of European Union, also not in the interest of the global, overall security because it is the UN Charter that says that you cannot change borders by force,” she said.

“If this pays off, we will see this elsewhere, all around the world. Then we see that whoever has the power gets to take what they want, which is not good for the majority of countries in the world,” she added.

Kallas also spoke about what she termed growing hybrid threats from Belarus, arguing the EU is assessing further measures after Lithuania reported meteorological balloons crossing from Belarusian territory.