BRUSSELS, November 26. /TASS/. The European Union and its member states have already spent 124 billion euros to support Ukraine, but this is not enough, and the Europeans should urgently step up their assistance to Kiev, European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, said at a session of the European parliament in Strasbourg.
"The overall assistance to Ukraine and its people by the European Union and its member states amounts to about 124 bln euro," he said.
He stressed that EU countries provided Ukraine with 45.5 billion euros for military needs and supplied "a wide variety of arms" from their stockpiles, including F-16 aircraft.
Reynders noted that the EU intends to invest 1 billion euros in the development of military production in Ukraine from the second tranche of 1.5 billion euros raised from immobilized Russian assets.
"From the next tranche of expected 1.5 billion euros, we propose to allocate 1 billion euros to the Ukrainian [defense] industry," Reynders said.
He also voiced the previously announced figures, according to which the EU has fulfilled its promise to supply Kiev with 1 million shells, albeit with an eight-month delay, and has already completed the training of 65,000 soldiers for the Ukrainian armed forces, promising to train another 10,000 by the end of winter.
"However, this is not enough to change the situation on the battlefield," the European Commissioner admitted, calling on EU countries to "urgently increase assistance again."
Reynders explained the fact that Ukraine lacks the colossal volume of weapons sent by all EU countries, NATO and the G7, as well as their closest partners, by the fact that Russia is supported by Iran, China and the DPRK.