The Belgian government decided on Wednesday to provide protection and observation equipment to the Ukrainian military, but not arms and ammunition, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo (OpenVLD), ministers Sophie Wilmès (MR , Foreign Affairs) and Ludivine Dedonder (PS, Defence) after a meeting of the National Security Council (CNS), the highest Belgian body of its kind.
« It’s about helmets, binoculars “replied Mr. De Croo, without going into details, but explaining that Belgium had to keep a defense capability within NATO, which limited the government’s choices. The balance between the political forces within the Vivaldi also probably worked in favor of non-lethal material support for the Kiev army.
The B-Fast cell will also be activated to provide the Ukrainian population with tents, hygiene kits, medical equipment and blankets. Everything, purchased from a Belgian firm in the absence of sufficient stocks at B-Fast, will be transported by road to Ukraine.
Belgium also undertakes to take in seriously burned civilians at the Queen Astrid military hospital in Brussels, should the war really set Ukraine on fire.
“Hundreds” of Belgian soldiers in NATO’s rapid reaction force
Finally, the CNS endorsed the deployment of “ hundreds of Belgian soldiers, naval, air and land forces as part of NATO’s Rapid Reaction Force, currently at the alert stage. This force, whose purpose is to defend the Alliance and not Ukraine, uses the resources of the allies on a rotational basis. Now it happens that it is the turn of Belgium, which should deploy according to plans about 500 men, according to a diplomatic source.
Belgian F-16s are also currently deployed in Estonia, as part of assistance to the Baltic countries. They carry out aerial patrols.
While hoping that the situation will not worsen in Ukraine, the government says it is very concerned about the deployment of nearly 190,000 Russian soldiers around this country. ” These troops have ballistic missiles, planes, helicopter gunships, medical units and command centers “, explained Ludivine Dedonder. ” They are ready for combat, despite the announcements of withdrawal that we have not observed on the ground ».
The embassy in Kiev still open “at this stage”
The Belgian embassy in Kiev remains open at this stage “Said Sophie Wilmès, with three diplomats and two agents who came as reinforcements to help the Belgian nationals present on the spot. These would be 223 in number according to the counts of the embassy, of which about fifty wish to be repatriated. The government reiterates its call to leave Ukraine as long as airlines, roads and trains are in working order. A commercial plane connects Kiev to Charleroi twice a week. ” When Belgians are told not to go to Ukraine or to leave the territory, these are opinions to be taken seriously“, insisted the minister. An evacuation in the event of a major conflict “is not guaranteede”.
Sophie Wilmès also summoned and met this Wednesday the Russian ambassador to Belgium, Alexandre Tokovinin, to express Belgium’s condemnation of Russia’s recognition of the separatist territories of Donetsk and Lugansk. “Russia has made a deliberate choice to violate international law, the Minsk Accords and undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine“, underlined the minister in a press release.