Borrell at Munich Security Conference: the most important security commitment for Ukraine is EU membership

The European Union has to increase and provide Ukraine with security commitments, EU High Representative Josep Borrell said at the Munich Security Conference that took place last weekend. 

“Member States are doing it, we are trying to do it too. But the most important security commitment for Ukraine is [the EU] membership,” said Borrell.

He described Ukraine as one of the three most important geopolitical challenges currently facing the EU, including the war in Gaza and the Global South, and said the EU has to continue supporting Ukraine “militarily and economically, more and quicker”. 

Borrell also said that the future of this war “would be shaped by drones and particularly by the massive introduction of artificial intelligence in the battlefield”. At the same time, he  said, this war combines “the war trenches of the First World War together with the artificial intelligence of Star Wars”, and Ukraine needs and will continue to need the ammunition of classic weapons.

Borrell also added that the West needed to prepare itself for a long period of tensions with Russia. “Russia may be tempted to increase its political and military provocations against NATO countries. So, the message is clear: we have a Russian problem ahead of us and for us [it] is a huge challenge,” said Borrell. “And for that, our military effort has to be sustained, in cooperation with key partners, like the US.”

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