The fate of the 40 billion euro plan on European military support in Kiev, proposed by the high EU representative for foreign affairs, Kaja Kallas, seems more and more uphill. “We are working on it, on a small scale, listening to the concerns of the different countries,” said the direct interested party. The goal, at least for now, would be to approve five billion euros for two million ammunition requested by the Ukrainian government. However, everything should take place on the basis of the principle of proportionality of the contributions.
According to Kallas, the resistance to the plan would come “from countries that are far away and that perhaps do not see the threat in such a strong way”. “But the threat is there, today more than ever,” he added. The high representative also called the interruption of the sending of armaments to Kiev “unacceptable”. “We have seen what happened with Minsk 1 and 2: if Moscow gets the ban on providing military aid to Ukraine, it will be free to continue because the Ukrainians will not be able to defend themselves on their own, so it is clear that it cannot work”, he continued, and then continues: “The strongest guarantee of security is a strong Ukrainian army, this is also very clear”.
Recall that, in recent days, Kallas plan has been welcomed with a certain coldness both by Italy and from France. Skepticism was also expressed by Spain, while Hungary and Slovakia said they are clearly contrary. In particular, according to rumors, Paris would fear that Kallas plan can create problems for the proposal of a coalition of the willing to which the Elisha is working: a proposal that, in turn, has not been unanimously accepted by the European block. In favor of the plan developed by the high representative, the Baltic countries have instead lined up, starting from Lithuania. The differences, never dormant, between the east and west, therefore re -emerge.
Among other things, there are those who fear that the positions recently taken by Kallas are excessively in contradiction with the line carried out by the Trump administration on Ukrainian diplomacy. In this sense, the high representative had particularly critical words towards the recent phone call between the American president and Vladimir Putin. “The two reports of the phone call between Trump and Putin are different, this shows that Russia cannot be trusted. He does not want to make concessions,” he said. According to some, Kallas’ critical line towards the White House would risk not only to further weaken the transatlantic relationships but also to condemn Brussels to complete irrelevance.
The problem, at the overall level, is that the EU appears increasingly split internally and unable to assume an authentic geopolitical perspective. And this chaotic situation, already in itself, represents a fatal blow to the deterrence that someone in Europe claims to want to build.
