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EU says answer to Russia’s decision on Black Sea is to boost Ukraine military support
Russia’s decision to consider any Ukraine-bound ship as a military carrier can only have one solution which is to increase military support to Ukraine, the European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said on Thursday.
Asked about Russia’s Black Sea decision, Borrell said: “The Ministers will have to discuss how to proceed, but there is only one solution: to increase the military support to Ukraine. If they are being bombed, we have to provide anti-aerial capacities. If the Russians are using drones, we have to provide Ukrainians with anti-aerial capacities to destroy these drones.”
Borrell stressed: “The massive attacks of these last three nights require an answer from our side, the answer can only be one, apart from rhetoric – providing more military resources. That is why I am going to present a proposal to increase in quite an important way, the capacity of the European Peace Facility. This is becoming very serious.”
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Russia had announced on Wednesday that it will start considering all vessels traveling on the Black Sea heading to Ukrainian ports as “potential military cargo carriers”, declaring a number of areas in the northwestern and southeastern parts of the international waters of the Black Sea as “temporarily dangerous for navigation,” and adding that the flag countries of ships traveling to Ukrainian ports will be considered parties to the conflict on Kyiv’s side.
This decision capped consecutive nights of Russian attacks on Odesa which Ukraine said damaged grain export infrastructure.
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