The European Union's foreign policy chief called on EU member states to give Ukraine more air defense systems as the embattled country grapples with increasingly intense Russian air strikes on its infrastructure while its stocks of weapons and ammunition dwindle as critical U.S. aid remains stuck in Congress.
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"We have Patriots (U.S. air defense systems). We have anti-missile systems. We have to take them [out] from our barracks where they are just in case and send them to Ukraine where the war is raging," Josep Borrell told the media on the sidelines of a meeting of the Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers on the Italian island of Capri, where Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine is topping the agenda.
The United States has been by far the main provider of military assistance to Ukraine since the start of Russia's invasion in February 2022.
But a desperately needed $62 billion military aid package for Ukraine remains blocked in the U.S. House of Representatives amid opposition from hard-liners in the Republican party who want to tie domestic policy issues such as immigration to a decision on foreign aid.
The House is expected to vote on April 20 on new military aid, including the long-delayed package for Ukraine.
"We cannot only rely on the U.S. We have to take our [own] responsibility and stop saying, 'Oh, the U.S. will do it'," Borrell said, adding, however, that he regretted "internal politics" in the United States was delaying the critical aid package.
Without more air defenses, "the electricity system of Ukraine will be destroyed. And no country can fight without having electricity at home, in the factories, online, for everything," Borrell added.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who was invited to attend the Capri meeting, thanked Germany for providing Ukraine with a Patriot battery, while urging Congress to approve the package.
“We will work here at the ministerial level to make other allies deliver air defense systems to Ukraine. Because it’s of fundamental importance," Kuleba said after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Kuleba pointed to the Russian missile strike on Ukraine's historic city of Chernihiv that killed at least 18 people on April 17 as evidence of his country's urgent need for military assistance.
"This is a matter of death and life for thousands of people, and in a broader sense, it's a matter of Ukraine's survival in this struggle against a much stronger enemy," he said.
The G7 meeting is also being attended by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.
Earlier on April 18, Ukraine shot down all 13 drones launched by Russia at its territory. The Ukrainian Air Force said most of the drones were launched at infrastructure targets in the western region of Ivano-Frankivsk. Russian news agency RIA Novosti claimed the drones struck Ukrainian military installations in Ivano-Frankivsk, but the mayor of the regional capital of Ivano-Frankivsk, Ruslan Martinskiv, told RFE/RL that only civilian infrastructure had been targeted.
Martsinkiv said debris from the drones caused a fire which was put out.
But a Russian missile attack on an infrastructure facility in the Dnipro region on April 18 causes substantial damage, regional administration head Serhiy Lysak said on Telegram.
"Two fires are still raging. We are clarifying the information," Lysak wrote.
Meanwhile, Andriy Yusov, spokesman for Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate at the Defense Ministry, has confirmed to RFE/RL reports of a "successful" attack by Ukrainian armed forces on a military airfield in the city of Dzhankoy in Ukraine's Russian-occupied Crimea.
Yusov told RFE/RL on April 18 that the attack, conducted a day earlier, destroyed Russia's launchers of anti-missile and anti-aircraft defense systems, radar systems, and damaged some planes.
Social media channels reported powerful explosions in the area of the airfield early on April 17, but the reports had not been verified.