Poland and EU flags. Archival photoBRUSSELS, May 17.Poland offers the European Union to increase the military aid fund to Ukraine, Minister of National Defense of the Republic Mariusz Blaszczak told reporters in Brussels, where the EU military heads are meeting. EU member states to increase bloc-funded military aid to Ukraine by 500 million euros, to 2 billion euros.The Russian Foreign Ministry said that EU military assistance to Ukraine only prolongs the conflict «We also talked about the support we provide to Ukraine. For my part, I raised the issue of finance. In my opinion, but this opinion is also shared by other states, the amount increased to two billion euros, decisively low,» Blaszczak said. He noted that only Poland provided Ukraine with military assistance for more than a billion euros. «Our donation, which we have already donated, already exceeds one billion euros, so the Polish donation alone is half the amount provided for in the fund. And we remember that this fund was organized to finance other purposes, such as missions of the European Union states. So that with full confidence, this amount should be higher,» he added. Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces strike only at military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops and , on March 25, completed the main tasks of the first stage — significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass.
