EU Ambassador to Moldova: EU boosting support for Modlova’s defense forces in view of Russian aggression in Ukraine
The European Union has reassessed the need to support Moldova’s defenses, which was triggered by Russian invasion of Ukraine.
That's according to the EU Ambassador to Moldova Janis Mazeiks, who gave a comment to Ukrinform in the lead up to the International Mayors Summit in Chisinau.
“As for what we are doing here in the Republic of Moldova, in the past we were engaged in practically all spheres of life except for defense. And for the past several years, we’ve had - and that's basically wa's triggered by the Russian aggression in Ukraine - is rethinking of our engagement,” the ambassador said.
The EU is now rebuilding the capacity of Moldova’s armed forces, he noted.
“Because this was one area where for decades literally nothing was being done with equipment not being changed, people not being trained. So now we are engaged in this sector and this is something that is now being brought in substantive numbers,” the diplomat said.
In the second year of the program, the EU doubled the Moldovan defense budget.
“So in the past year, our support has been not about lethal equipment, it was about demining, about hospitals, about communications equipment, and about vehicles. But this year, there is a plan also to have the lethal component in it. So we will continue working with that,” said Mazeiks.
As Ukrinform reported earlier, Russian missiles and drones have repeatedly breached the airspace of Ukraine’s neighbors. Recently, the debris from a Russian drone were found in Moldova, in an area close to the Ukrainian.