Parliament discuss the latest developments in Ukraine with EU Foreign Policy Chief Joseph Borrell and will vote on EU macro-financial assistance. Ukrainian forces recently launched a counteroffensive in the southern part of the country to retake areas occupied by Russia, including around Kherson. Meanwhile the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) conducted an inspection visit of the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant located in an area repeatedly hit by shelling. The nuclear watchdog has called for the setting up of a security zone around the power plant.

EU - Ukraine (T)

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

GAHLER, Michael (EPP, DE)

troubles in Ukraine (T)

KYRTSOS, Georgios (Renew, EL)

ARENA, Maria (S&D, BE)

BORRELL FONTELLES, Josep (PSE, ES, EC)

ALEXANDROV YORDANOV, Alexander (EPP, BG)

EP question time (T)

The state of play of the war in Ukraine: extracts from the Question time to Josep BORRELL, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World

Title: The state of play of the war in Ukraine: extracts from the Question time to VPC/HR

SOUNDBITE (French), Maria ARENA (S&amp;D, BE), My first question is about Ukrainian chilidren, who are particularly vulnerable today. Some of them have, in fact, even been kidnapped and have been abused. Do we have any specific service to look after them?

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, Well, you see, more than 1000 children have been wounded in Ukraine. I'm speaking here only of the children who have died or who have been wounded, more than one thousand. These are the figures we have actually. The real figure is probably much higher, many more than this. One thousand children. There's also the risk of violence and even sexual abuse, trafficking and all the evils. Associate it with being separated from their families and leaving the door wide open to abuse. This is why, obviously, we condemn this attempt to appropriate Ukrainian children taken advantage of the situation of vulnerability.

SOUNDBITE (Greek), Georgios KYRTSOS (Renew, EL), This war is going to last now. Are we being consistent in our arms? deliveries? Policy is the same method being deployed when adopting nine billion euros worth of aid. One at the same time lagging behind in actually stumping up the money. And the same applies to arms deliveries, delays in arms deliveries are far too serious in their impact. So what can you do to speed up the provision of that military assistance to Ukraine?

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, For the first time in the history of the European Union, we've been able to use our resources in order to help a country at war. Member states are doing them, are doing so by themselves, but never had the union to do so. Done so as such. And may I remind you, this is not part and parcel of the EU budget. This is not the budget that you have adopted. This is not the budget of the union. This is an intergovernmental fund that is being run by the member states directly without any intervention from parliament because it does not belong to the budget that you have adopted and which you are giving full reports.

SOUNDBITE (English), Michael GAHLER (EPP, DE), The question is also how can we encourage, especially our major member states, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, to deliver more ?

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, In the European External Action Service, we have set up a clearinghouse unit which receives requests for military assistance from the Ukrainian army and then compares those requests from the office, from the member states to meet those requests. And we establish what each member state is doing off its own bat so as to avoid ending up in a situation where we have too much of one thing and not enough of another. There are 27 of us, so coordination isn't all that easy, but it's been working well.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, This shows that the strategy that we followed right from the beginning is the right one.  and that we must continue to apply it. Now is not the time to weaken. On the contrary, we should be redoubling our efforts at this point. Putin is expecting weak democracies, fragile democracies to cave in in the winter and to cut off their support to Ukraine because that will be cold and that the cost of gas will be so high. We need to keep up our support to Ukraine because we were saying that it is effective.

SOUNDBITE (Bulgarian), Alexander ALEXANDROV YORDANOV (EPP, BG), Each victory on the part of Ukraine allows Ukraine to get closer to peace. My question is as follows. Do you fully support the Ukrainian president, Mr. Zolensky, who said that peace negotiations can only be launched after the Russian army has fully retreated from Ukrainian territory and only after Ukraine has seised full control of its territory?

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, I don't know. Well, I'm not sure if and when the peace negotiations start. They always have to start to the cease fire. I'm not the man who will be advising the president of Ukraine. He's the one who's facing invasion for us in the European Union. The sooner negotiations take place, the better. Peace negotiations in a war don't come about just by chance or because of any sort of miracle. They come about when circumstances allow of them and when the the wishes of the aggressor.