Price of delaying Western military aid for Ukraine could be too high - Borrell

The six-month delay that it took the U.S. to decide whether to continue supporting Ukraine, as well as the EU's delay in supplying ammunition, could lead to major changes on the front lines and could cost many lives.

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said this in his speech at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in San Francisco, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"What a pity that you have been six months discussing about maintaining or not this support: this six months could make a big difference on the front line. The last news I got this morning [in the] daily report from my people in Brussels, is that Russia is starting a new offensive, opening a new front in the north of Kharkiv. I was there some days before the war started, and now maybe this may be the place where a decisive development affects us, and events could happen this springtime," Borrell said.

According to him, if Putin wins this war, he will be able to destabilize other European Union countries that are knocking on NATO's door. "Finland and Sweden, traditionally neutral, because they are very much convinced that, if they want to avoid to be invaded, aggress[ed] by Russia, the best thing they can do is to become members of NATO," Borrell said.

"We will be confronting huge challenges in terms of war sustainability. Ukraine will need our support. Everyone [wish that] Ukraine resists. We have to do more and quicker. [And] this six month delay on the U.S. support, and also some delays in our support on providing ammunition, can unhappily make the difference, and in any case, to be paid in terms of lives, a lot of lives," he said.

He stressed that the Europeans have a strong concern whether the U.S. will continue with the same security priorities depending on who comes to the White House.

"This is your business, but this will affect us around the world and in particular us. And we are looking at what's going to happen in the U.S., because certainly we Europeans alone will be [in] difficulty to continue providing Ukraine with the support they need in order to continue their fight. […] I think that we Europeans and the U.S. have to continue strongly on this line, because it's our security and it's the peace and stability in the world which is at stake," Borrell said.