The European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, warned on Monday that weapon stocks provided by member countries to Ukraine are running low and that EU nations should coordinate to consolidate military spending and materials.
"The military stocks of most member states has been, I wouldn't say exhausted, but depleted in a high proportion, because we have been providing a lot of capacity to the Ukrainians," the foreign policy chief said at a debate with European parliamentarians, according to the The Associated Press.
"It has to be refilled. The best way of refilling is doing that together. It will be cheaper," Borrell added.
During a meeting in the Czech Republic last week, EU defense ministers debated ways to better pool military equipment and resources as well as bulk purchases of ammunition and weapons like air defense systems, which Ukraine continues to demand.
Still, Borrell warned on Monday that if member countries kept expanding their military capabilities, rather than pooling, "the result will be a big waste of money, because this is not a way of canceling our duplications — there are a lot of them — or filling our gaps."
Borrell also lamented that the European Union missed an opportunity to train the Ukrainian armed forces a year ago, prior to Russia's invasion in February, despite several member countries advocating for such an operation.
"Unhappily," Borrell said, "we didn't, and today we regret [it]. We regret that last August we were not following this request, fulfilling this request." Borrell adds that had the EU responded in Aug. of 2021, "we would be in a better situation."
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