The EU plans to close its airspace to Russian airlines, fund weapons purchases to Ukraine and ban some pro-Kremlin media outlets in its latest response to the Ukraine crisis, European Commission officials said.
The measures, which commission president Ursula von der Leyen said she expected to be endorsed, would be the first time the 27-nation bloc paid for the purchase and delivery of weapons and equipment to a country under attack.
“Another taboo has fallen. The taboo that the European Union was not providing arms in a war,” said the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell.
The commission’s plans followed the announcement earlier in the day that Germany was committing €100 billion ($113bn) to a special armed forces fund and would keep its defence spending above 2 per cent of GDP from now on.
The shift underscored how Russia’s war in Ukraine was rewriting Europe’s post-Second World War security and defence policy in ways that were unthinkable only a few weeks ago.
Also on Sunday, leaders of the G7 group of wealthy nations threatened to impose new sanctions on Russia if it continued its military operations in Ukraine. They pledged not to recognise Moscow's military gains.
Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and the US warned that they would "take further steps" to add to the sanctions already announced if Russia did not cease its operation.
Meanwhile, anti-war protesters took to the streets in Berlin, Rome, Prague, Istanbul and even Russian cities including Moscow and St Petersburg, and a dozen Belarusian cities, to demand an end to the war.
Human rights advocates reported that more than 170 people had been arrested in the Belarusian protests, as the country’s authoritarian leader offered its territory to his ally Russia.
In Minsk, a large pile of flowers continued to grow at Ukraine’s embassy.
Tens of thousands of people massed on Sunday in front of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, with some carrying posters with slogans such as “Hands off Ukraine,” “Tanks to Windmills” and “Putin, go to therapy and leave Ukraine and the world in peace".
The EU plans to use millions of euros to help to provide air defence systems, anti-tank weapons, ammunition and other military equipment for Ukraine’s armed forces.
It would also supply fuel, protective gear, helmets and first aid kits.
The system might also use EU money to reimburse members that have already sent lethal and non-lethal aid to Ukraine this year, giving an incentive for those countries to invest more in assistance.
To bolster its military training and support missions around the world, the EU has set up a European Peace Facility, a fund with a ceiling of about €5.7bn.
Some of the money can be used to train and equip partner countries, including with lethal weapons.
Ms von der Leyen said that beyond the weapons purchases, EU nations would shut down airspace to Russians – a decision that more than a dozen EU members had already announced.
“We are proposing a prohibition on all Russian-owned, Russian-registered or Russian-controlled aircraft," she said. "These aircraft will no more be able to land in, take off or overfly the territory of the EU."
She said the EU would also ban “the Kremlin’s media machine. The state-owned Russia Today and Sputnik, as well as their subsidiaries, will no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin’s war and to sow division in our union”.
Ms von der Leyen said the EU would also take aim at Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko for supporting Russia’s widespread military campaign in Ukraine.
“We will hit Lukashenko’s regime with a new package of sanctions,” she said.
Meanwhile, Japan joined the US and European nations in cutting key Russian banks from the Swift international financial banking system.
Japan will also freeze assets of Russian President Vladimir Putin and other top Russian officials, while sending $100 million in emergency humanitarian aid to Ukraine, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said.
