On the continued financial and military support to Ukraine by EU Member States

B100039/2024

European Parliament resolution on the continued financial and military support to Ukraine by EU Member States

(2024/2799(RSP))

The European Parliament,

–having regard to its previous resolutions on Ukraine and on Russia, in particular those adopted since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the annexation of the Crimean peninsula on 19 February 2014,

–having regard to NATO’s 2022 Strategic Concept,

–having regard to the Charter of the United Nations,

–having regard to Rule 136(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A.whereas Russia, with the support of Belarusian dictator Aliaksandr Lukashenka, has been conducting an illegal, unprovoked and unjustified full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine since 24 February 2022, in clear violation of the UN Charter and the fundamental principles of international law, continuing what it started in 2014 when it annexed Crimea and subsequently occupied parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts;

B.whereas Ukraine, its army and its citizens have shown unwavering determination in successfully defending the country, despite the high cost in civilian and military casualties; whereas atrocities committed in the occupied territories, as well as indiscriminate attacks by Russian forces on residential areas and civilian infrastructure, have led to thousands of civilian casualties, including children, and widespread human rights violations, reflecting a blatant disregard for international humanitarian law; whereas millions of Ukrainians continue to be displaced inside and outside of Ukraine; whereas this inhumane conduct by the Russian forces and their proxies constitutes war crimes and crimes against humanity and amounts to genocide;

C.whereas since 24 August 2024, Russia has launched its biggest aerial bombardment campaign against Ukraine, involving large numbers of ballistic missiles and drones; whereas this assault has targeted critical civilian infrastructure, such as hospitals, schools, universities and housing complexes, in an attempt to break the resilience of the Ukrainian people; whereas energy infrastructure has also been targeted in an attempt to break down the country’s integrated power grid and destabilise the functioning of the remaining nuclear power plants, which could lead to accidents similar to Chernobyl ahead of the autumn and winter months; whereas over a hundred people have been killed in these strikes so far and around a thousand have been injured;

D.whereas Russian drones and missiles targeting Ukraine increasingly violate EU and NATO airspace, putting citizens in the eastern regions of the alliance at risk;

E.whereas the EU and its Member States have thus far contributed more than EUR 100 billion in financial, humanitarian, refugee and military assistance to Ukraine, including approximately EUR 40 billion in military aid with a further EUR 21 billion reportedly to be allocated by 2025; whereas the EU Military Assistance Mission in support of Ukraine (EUMAM Ukraine) has trained over 55 000 members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, including both combined arms training and specialised training; whereas NATO will ensure an annual financial contribution to Ukraine of EUR 40 billion;

F.whereas in July, the EU made its first regular payment of approximately EUR 4.2 billion under the newly established Ukraine Facility; whereas this payment follows the previous bridge and pre-financing support totalling EUR 12 billion since the establishment of the facility in March 2024;

G.whereas the Ukraine Defence Contact Group consists of more than 50 like-minded countries and has played a pivotal role in coordinating international military support, underscoring the importance of collective action in defence of democracy and sovereignty; whereas in contrast, Russia is being supported by an axis of the most autocratic and atrocious totalitarian regimes, such as North Korea, Iran and Syria;

H.whereas NATO and its leading allies, especially the United States and the United Kingdom, have played a crucial role in coordinating and leading the efforts to support Ukraine militarily, not only with weapons, ammunition and equipment, but also with intelligence and data; whereas the western partners have also introduced restrictions on the use of their weapons systems in attacking targets on Russian territory for fear of a possible escalation of the war; whereas some allies still impose individual restrictions on the use of the weapons delivered to Ukraine against the aggressor, thus limiting Ukraine’s ability to stop attacks against civilians;

I.whereas the ongoing war of aggression further confirms that the most important country for European security remains the United States, as the war continues to reveal profound and unacceptable shortfalls in Europe’s ability to defend itself; whereas these events have underlined the role of Poland as a respected EU and NATO member and the main hub for providing support to Ukraine; whereas this war of attrition against an EU accession country has not changed the attitude of some Member States and NATO allies toward meeting the security requirements of this reality, as outlined in NATO’s defence pledge;

J.whereas the decision by the Islamic Republic of Iran to supply Russia with thousands of Shahed drones has further cemented its status as a pariah state; whereas Russia is continuing to receive support from countries such as North Korea and China; whereas North Korea has allegedly delivered over 2.5 million rounds of ammunition and other weapons since August 2023, which further demonstrates its unwavering hostility to international laws and norms;

K.whereas Ukraine’s Kursk operation and Russia’s inability to seize the entire Donbas region despite Putin’s deadlines and massive troop assaults, demonstrates that Ukraine has a highly capable fighting force and that, with more supplies of the weapons needed, it can turn the tide on Russia’s occupation;

1.Reaffirms its positions on the continued support for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders and the unwavering commitment of the EU to providing political, financial, economic, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support for Ukraine’s victory; calls for the EU and its Member States to work actively towards maintaining and achieving the broadest possible international support for Ukraine;

2.Underlines that, 10 years after the start of Russia’s aggression and over two years after its full-scale invasion, the goals of Ukraine’s western allies remain unchanged, and include the military collapse of Russian forces and their proxies in Ukraine, which will enable Kyiv to fully restore its territorial integrity, ensure that Russia pays compensation to Ukraine for the tremendous suffering it has caused, make sure that Russian imperialism is rooted out to never return and bring to justice those responsible for waging the war of aggression against Ukraine and for the crimes they have committed, including Vladimir Putin and Aliaksandr Lukashenka, as well as war criminals in the lower echelons of the Russian Government, the Russian armed forces and their proxies;

3.Recognises that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has genocidal characteristics against the Ukrainian people, fitting multiple, if not all, definitions of genocide as described in Article II of the Genocide Convention of 1948;

4.Reiterates that Ukraine, as a victim of aggression, has a legitimate right to self-defence in line with Article 51 of the UN Charter; recalls that the significant, although still insufficient, military assistance provided by the EU, the US and like-minded partners is designed to allow Ukraine to effectively defend itself against an aggressor state and to re-establish full control over its entire internationally recognised territory;

5.Commends the Ukraine Defence Contact Group for its vital role in coordinating international support and urges the EU Member States to increase their contributions to bolster Ukraine’s defence capabilities;

6.Demands that all western partners of Ukraine immediately lift all restrictions on the use of weapons systems delivered for the legitimate self-defence of Ukraine in line with Article 51 of the UN Charter, in order to allow strikes on legitimate targets within Russian territory; recalls that these unilateral and discriminate restrictions hinder Ukraine’s ability to effectively counter Russian attacks on its cities and infrastructure, which increases the already staggering civilian death toll;

7.Underlines the need for enhanced air defence cooperation, including the deployment of modern air defence systems to intercept Russian missiles and drones targeting Ukraine, ensuring protection from threats that extend into EU and NATO airspace; welcomes the commitment by a consortium of European countries, including Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and Norway, to supply F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine and to train Ukrainian pilots, which marks a significant shift in military support for Ukraine and offers the Ukrainian Air Force a robust platform capable of performing various roles, including air superiority, ground attack and reconnaissance;

8.Urges the Member States to immediately provide Ukraine with other advanced fourth-generation aircraft, or better, as well as missiles with long-range strike capabilities such as Taurus, including means for their maintenance, in sufficient volume and without restrictions, to bolster Ukraine’s defensive efforts, strategic and operational interests, and long-term deterrence capabilities against Russian aggression;

9.Recalls that Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine is part of a broader set of objectives against the West and against our democracy, security, interests and values, as openly declared by Putin in the weeks preceding the full-scale aggression; reiterates its belief that Ukraine is on an irreversible path to NATO membership; underlines that a lack of more decisive and substantial military aid from the West will only encourage Russia to continue its aggression; notes that the Russian aggression has clearly shown that NATO has the role of primary guarantor of European security; underlines that, following Sweden’s and Finland’s accession, only four EU Members are not NATO allies, namely Austria, Cyprus, Ireland and Malta;

10.Calls for the Member States to increase their spending to reach at least the 2 % threshold and for more complementarity and less duplication between the EU and NATO; reiterates its previous position that all EU Member States and NATO allies should collectively and individually commit to supporting Ukraine militarily with no less than 0.25 % of their gross domestic product annually; underlines that the insufficient or delayed deliveries of weapons and ammunition risks undermining the efforts made so far; urges the Member States, therefore, to substantially increase and significantly accelerate their military support and to boost the capacity of their military industries; welcomes the NATO decision guaranteeing military supplies worth at least EUR 40 billion in the near future; is of the opinion that credible deterrence and defence require even greater spending than NATO’s 2 % guideline;

11.Reiterates its firm conviction that Russia must provide financial compensation for the massive damage it has caused in Ukraine; welcomes, therefore, the recent decision of the Council to direct extraordinary revenues stemming from immobilised Russian assets to support the Ukrainian war effort; welcomes, further, the G7 decision to offer Ukraine a USD 50 billion loan secured through immobilised Russian state assets; calls for the EU, together with like-minded partners, to establish a sound legal regime for the confiscation of Russian state-owned assets frozen by the EU; calls, likewise, for a mechanism to be envisaged to compel Russia to pay long-term reparations to Ukraine;

12.Underlines the responsibility of Ukraine’s western partners to commit to long-term and sustained financial support for Ukraine; recalls analysis that suggest that Ukraine’s military needs are at the level of approximately EUR 100 billion annually; calls furthermore on the Commission to propose long-term financial assistance for the reconstruction of Ukraine, building on the experience of the newly established Ukraine Facility;

13.Calls on the Council to maintain and extend its sanctions policy against Russia and Belarus while monitoring, reviewing and enhancing its effectiveness and impact; calls on the Council to systematically tackle the issue of sanctions circumvention by EU-based companies, third parties and non-EU countries and to adopt and strictly implement restrictive measures against all entities facilitating the circumvention of sanctions and providing the Russian military complex with military and dual-use technologies and equipment; underlines the need to prevent critical components produced in EU countries from reaching the Russian military industry; considers it essential to strengthen controls on the export and maintenance of high-tech equipment produced in the EU, as well as to increase law enforcement measures and cooperation to prevent sanctions circumvention; invites the Council and the Member States to address, in particular, the issue of western-designed components being used in Russian weapons; calls for further limitations on access to the EU by Russian citizens, especially through more stringent security screenings, including the presentation of military service records during the Schengen visa application process;

14.Underlines that there can be no impunity for the crime of aggression and that the instigators and perpetrators of the war of aggression against Ukraine – the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, the President of Belarus, Aliaksandr Lukashenka, the Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov, the former Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation, Sergei Shoigu, and the current Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation, Andrey Belousov – as well as all those involved in the planning, preparation, initiation or waging of the war against Ukraine, should be brought to international justice and are not entitled to personal immunity; calls for sanctions also to be applied to those countries that willingly fuel the Russian war machine, supply equipment and ammunition to the aggressor or facilitate the circumvention of sanctions;

15.Condemns Russia’s practice of blocking any action at UN level aimed at holding it accountable for its war of aggression against Ukraine; calls on all UN member states to take action, taking into account the fact that the Russian Federation, with its war of aggression against Ukraine, has severely violated the very foundations of the UN Charter, to revoke Russia’s veto powers at the Security Council and expel Russia from the UN, emulating the USSR’s expulsion from the League of Nations in 1939 after its aggression towards Poland and Finland;

16.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the President, Government and Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the United Nations, the US Government and Congress and NATO.