The European Parliament met in Brussels on Thursday, April 11 with a vote on approving the EU Council’s budget on the agenda. However, after an intervention by former Belgian Prime Minister now a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), Guy Verhofstadt it was decided to block approval of the budget.
With a vote taken and 515 MEPs for and only 62 against Verhofstadt’s motion to refuse to discharge the EU Council's budget until European leaders agree to support Ukraine with additional Patriot air defense systems was adopted.
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As an analysis of overnight attacks on April 10-11 shows, Russia is ruthlessly exploiting Kyiv’s critical shortage of Patriot air interceptor missiles. Its ballistic and “hypersonic” missiles got through to targets Thursday mostly unscathed, damaging power plants across Ukraine.
Verhofstadt, a well-known and vociferous advocate for Ukraine, told parliament: “What I find scandalous is that Europe, which is opening the door for Ukraine, and the European Council are not even capable in such an urgency to decide to send a number of anti-missile systems to Ukraine.”
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He posted parts of his speech on his X / Twitter channel.
Andrius Kubilius, a Lithuanian MEP, also writing on X / Twitter said: “Just now: The European Parliament has suspended the decision on financing the EU Council for failing to deliver Patriot systems to Ukraine.”
Since early spring Russia has intensified its attacks on Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure with growing success as Kyiv’s growing shortage of air defenses – first announced in January – was increasingly becoming apparent.
For months Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his government ministers have been urging partners and allies to provide Ukraine with more air defenses with the US-made Patriot systems being favorite as one of the few systems capable of intercepting ballistic and other high-speed missiles.
On April 6 Zelensky said that to fully protect Ukraine from Russian missile attacks 25 Patriot systems each consisting of 6-8 missile batteries without revealing how many were currently held.
On Wednesday, April 10, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba said that he and his team had identified 100 Patriot systems being held worldwide. He said that some neighboring countries were using more than one complete system to guard a single airport. This was a follow-up to similar comments he had made while attending NATO’s 75th anniversary celebrations on April 3.
Kuleba further said that Kyiv had identified four countries in Europe and Asia that have Patriots that could be immediately transferred to Ukraine without jeopardizing the users' own security needs. He said that initially Ukraine could get by with just an additional seven systems which would at least enable Ukraine's largest cities and key battlefield areas to be defended.
Time will tell whether or not the actions taken by Verhofstadt and the other MEPs will help clear the way for the additional air defense systems Kyiv is crying out for.
Meanwhile, in the United States on Wednesday, President Joe Biden urged the US House of Representatives to pass a proposed $60 billion in aid for Ukraine, AFP reported. The funds had already passed the Senate but have been stalled in the House for months, as Republican Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to call for a vote.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron visited Washington pleading for assistance on behalf of Ukraine, even making his case directly to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who continues to hold sway, particularly over the far-right Republicans that are the most skeptical about Ukraine aid. However, Cameron failed to meet with Johnson, with Uk government sources citing scheduling issues.
The Telegraph reported that Biden’s national security advisor Jake Sullivan also snubbed Cameron due to scheduling issues. Cameron did however meet US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
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