EU ministers release €6.6bn for Ukraine, weigh hybrid-attack plan

EU defence ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday agreed to release €6.6bn ($7.4bn) in military aid for Ukraine from the European Peace Facility and discussed a new "emergency protocol" to coordinate the bloc's response to hybrid attacks, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.

Ukraine's defence minister Yevhen Khmara joined the meeting by video link to brief ministers before they turned to air defence, an EU training mission for Ukrainian forces, defence-industry cooperation and countering Russia's "shadow fleet" of tankers, according to Ukrainska Pravda.

Kallas told reporters afterwards that air defence remained the "key priority" for Kyiv, though no new pledges of air-defence interceptors were made at the meeting. Ministers agreed the first step of a strategic review of the EU's military training mission for Ukraine, extending it for a further two years, she said.

On the proposed emergency protocol for hybrid attacks, Kallas said the mechanism should work "hand in hand" with NATO rather than duplicate it. "There shouldn't be any duplication, that is what everybody is saying," she said, adding that she had discussed the plan with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. She described it as a way to coordinate the tools available to member states in response to hostile acts that fall short of armed aggression under NATO's Article 5.

Kallas also said the EU would set up a coordination cell in Kyiv to gather lessons from the battlefield and strengthen military training. She said attacks by Houthi forces had increased risks to shipping in the Red Sea, and that the EU's Operation Aspides mission needed more vessels to keep the route open; two member states had indicated they might provide additional ships, she said.