The European Union agreed Sunday to send about $500 million in military aid to Ukraine for lethal weapons, plus another $55 million in nonlethal aid, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said at a press conference in Brussels. The EU sending arms to a country at war is another first in a rapidly shifting geopolitical situation, including Germany and the U.S. providing Stinger missiles to Ukraine, Russia being effectively blocked from much of the global economy, and Russian President Vladimir Putin escalating nuclear tensions as the world responds negatively to his invasion of Ukraine.
Borrell also said the EU has already discussed a request from Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to supply his country's Air Force with specific type of fighter jets Ukrainian airmen can already pilot, and several EU member states intend to comply soon. An EU official said the fighter jets would not be paid for with the EU's $500 million European Peace Facility donation.
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