Belgium will send a new delivery of military equipment to Ukraine in the short term. The federal government, meeting Friday morning in the Council of Ministers, took the decision to buy 11 million euros worth of new military and protective equipment, to be sent to the Ukrainian field.
These are ballistic protection equipment (bulletproof vests), night vision means, light weapons and ammunition.
The purchase will be made from three Belgian companies which had previously been asked to keep stocks available pending the decision of the Council of Ministers. The companies concerned are FN Herstal for weapons and ammunition (for an amount of approximately 7.5 million), Sioen for bulletproof vests, and OIP (Optronic Instruments and products) for vision glasses.
Belgium will apply for the European fund
In the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the government had already validated a first shipment of military equipment, by digging into Defense reserves. It was a question of automatic rifles, ammunition, fuel or even anti-tank weapons, involving an amount of 31.6 million euros.
Following this, the Council of Ministers took a second decision on Friday morning to allow Defense to replenish its stocks. The market to be launched will cover nearly 20 million euros worth of arms and ammunition.
Belgium is now going to submit a dossier to the European Union in order to recover the amounts released for military aid to Ukraine. A European fund of 500 million euros was formed for this purpose.
“We are in a situation today where we unfortunately feel that the conflict will continue for weeks or months.commented the Minister of Defence, Ludivine Dedonder (PS), at the end of the Council of Ministers. We have once more received a Ukrainian request, formulated during the NATO meeting on Wednesday, for additional military equipment. It is in this context that we provide additional support. We stick to our logic of being able to provide all possible assistance to Ukraine, not only military, but also in other areas, such as welcoming refugees.”
