Ukraine has right to defend both on own soil, beyond its borders - Swedish MoD
That’s according to Swedish Defense Minister Pål Johnson, who spoke ahead of the informal meeting of EU defense chiefs in Brussels on Friday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
"Sweden adheres to international law. Ukraine has the right to defend itself inside and outside of its territory... It’s Russia who started an unprovoked full-scale aggression against Ukraine. So, Sweden's position is that Ukraine has the right to defend itself inside and outside of Ukraine... And we are going to be supporting Ukraine for as long as it takes," Johnson emphasized.
According to the official, Brussels will also discuss the issue of training Ukrainian recruits on Ukraine’s territory.
"We do not exclude this possibility in one way or another... We think it’s important also to keep unity within the EU for such measure, and, of course, we have to take into account military and political considerations, but we don’t exclude this possibility," the minister said.
Johnson recalled that Sweden had already delivered EUR 4 billion worth of defense equipment to Ukraine and is drawing conclusions in the delivery process so that it sees no delays.
As Ukrinform reported earlier, during a press conference in Brussels following the informal Council of the EU foreign ministers, EU High Representative Josep Borrell stated that the lifting of restrictions on the use of Western weapons supplied by EU countries to Ukraine for protection against Russian aggression will remain within the competence of the national governments of EU member states.
