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EU approves EUR 9 bn in aid for Ukraine: Polish PM

24.06.2022 23:45
The Polish prime minister has said that the European Union has approved EUR 9 billion in new financial assistance to Ukraine.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki Photo: PAP/Albert Zawada

"There is a war in Ukraine, and there is nothing to pay nurses, teachers, police, border guards, or many other public services," Mateusz Morawiecki told a news conference after a summit of EU leaders in Brussels on Friday.

He also said that EU leaders had agreed to provide Ukraine with more military assistance, the ukrinform.net website reported.

Morawiecki told reporters that, "according to the allies and our own sources," Russian artillery and rocket systems outnumbered Ukraine's "by a ratio of between 8:1 to 10:1."

He added: "Just imagine how hard it is to fight against such an overwhelming enemy force? That is why Poland, as well as the United States, Britain and the Baltic states, are doing everything to help Ukraine in the supply of weapons."

Speaking to reporters at the close of the EU summit in Brussels, Morawiecki hailed the granting of EU candidate status to Ukraine, saying it will help liberate the country from Russian troops, Polish state news agency PAP reported.

Morawiecki also told reporters on Friday that Poland and the Baltic states wanted to see a stronger NATO defensive presence in the Suwałki Gap, a strategic stretch of land near Russia’s westernmost region of Kaliningrad.

Friday was day 121 of Russia's war on Ukraine.

(gs)

Source: PAP, IAR, ukrinform.net