“If I continue to lead the EC, the executive body of the European Union (EU), I will certainly create the position of Defense Commissioner,” Von der Leyen said in her speech at the Munich Security Conference. We need this position, the official estimated.
Local media highlight the EC's top leader's efforts to push forward Ukraine's rearmament and increase war spending in the region under the pretext of the need for sufficient weapons reserves.
At the same time, the former German defense minister confessed that the EC was using the money from interest on Russian bank accounts frozen at European financial institutions to purchase weapons for Kiev.
On February 22, 2022, President Vladimir Putin ordered a military operation to protect the population of the rebellious Donbas region and to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine.
The President of the European Commission also announced that next March this body will present a strategy to increase the production of the European military industry by 20 percent.
On the other hand, Von der Leyen pointed out that the EU executive body is preparing a thirteenth package of restrictions against Russia, this time targeting the means of circumventing sanctions through third countries.
Western powers, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada and several EU member states, applied more than 14,000 punitive measures against Russia, which had a significant boomerang effect, particularly on European economies.
However, Russia managed to become the fifth world economy by consumption index in 2023, redirect the sales of its oil and gas and increase the production of its war industry several times amid the confrontation in Ukraine, the local press emphasizes.
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