The EU Has Decided To Press Putin Harder, Faster And More Creatively

European foreign and defense ministers met in Brussels.

Brussels hosted a ministerial meeting in a maxi- or "jumbo", as it is called in the sidelines, format: foreign and defense ministers of the European Union gathered in the EU Council on the same day - Tuesday, May 20. And the main topic of both meetings was peace in Ukraine, "Deutsche Welle" reported.

"Our main priority remains an unconditional ceasefire," EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas emphasized at the final press conference. She herself and participants in the meetings spoke of the need to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to come to the negotiating table and agree to a cease-fire in Ukraine, as Kiev has already done. Since Putin is obviously not interested in this, the ministers decided to increase the pressure so that he would be motivated to do so.

They approved, as expected, a maxi - as well as the meeting itself, a package of sanctions against Russia, under four different regimes, and immediately began to discuss new sanctions. And, according to Kallas, all EU countries insist that they must be drafted as quickly as possible.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul (Johann Wadephul) urged that when discussing new sanctions, "we should not give up anything in our thoughts." "I am in favor of us continuing to consider all options and allowing ourselves to think outside the box," the minister said. He is convinced that Europe should send a "clear signal" to President Putin that concrete steps are now expected from him.

How low will the oil price ceiling fall?"

It is known that as one of the restrictive measures, the European Union intends to lower the oil price ceiling, which is still at $60 per barrel. In its current form, experts consider it ineffective, because now the price of Russian oil is already lower. Many ministers, including Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiga, who arrived in Brussels, said that lowering the oil price ceiling is the most effective measure against Russia.

But opinions on the "correct" price ceiling among participants in this discussion are still very divided: Kiev proposes to radically lower it to $30 per barrel, while the European Union, if unofficial sources are to be believed, is ready only for 50, because this step requires unanimous support of all members, as well as its coordinated introduction at the level of the G7 countries.

As Kaya Kallas noted, all members of the G7 understand that in essence the ceiling should be lower than the current oil price, but time has passed, and the West has not made the proper adjustments. According to her information, the sweeping sanctions package prepared by the US Senate also includes this measure. The EU will insist on lowering the ceiling price already at the May 20-22 meeting of G7 finance ministers in Canada.

The "coalition of the willing" in Ukraine has been joined by a new country

Along with the need to continue negotiations while increasing pressure on the Kremlin, the ministers discussed security guarantees for Ukraine. Kallas did not go into details about the content of that discussion, but Belgian Defense Minister Theo Franken told reporters about the so-called "coalition of the willing" under the auspices of Britain and France.

He said the chiefs of staff of the coalition's member states are developing a plan and are "almost there." Franken praised the strategy and even did not rule out Belgium joining the coalition on Ukrainian territory: "As soon as there is a ceasefire, we will immediately be able to act together with the 'coalition of the willing' on Ukrainian soil." The minister stressed that Ukraine can count on its European partners.

Where will Kiev get 15 billion euros for the defense industry?

In parallel, Europe is betting on training and further provision of the Ukrainian army with weapons, as well as on the development and capacity building of the Ukrainian defense industry. Some countries insist: the main security guarantee for Ukraine is a strong army.

Since there is no serious intention on the Russian side to participate in the negotiations, Europe is only strengthening its view that Ukraine needs to provide as much military aid as possible, Swedish Defense Minister Paul Unson said: "So that it can negotiate from a position of strength and ensure itself a just and lasting peace."

Junson and his other colleagues in office spoke admiringly of the achievements of the Ukrainian defense industry, but stressed that it needs investment to ramp up arms production at the right level.

Later that day, Andriy Sibiga told ministers and then journalists that the Ukrainian defense industry, "to use all its capacities," lacks 15 billion euros. DW asked the Swedish defense minister where the EU could quickly find such funds, to which he replied: among frozen Russian assets, and not only in the form of interest from them, which are already used to support Ukraine. However, there is still no unanimity on this issue among EU members.

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