Ukraine needs a certain type of tank that can be quickly re-equipped, and member states have these tanks, so the EU should provide them, European Parliament President Roberta Metzola said in an interview with a group of journalists in Brussels on Wednesday. and Lithuania, reports Agerpres.

Asked if she had changed her mind about the need to supply Ukraine with more weapons, including tanks, after Russia responded to an alleged Ukrainian attack on a bridge in Crimea, Roberta Metzola said it was “crucial” for her and the European Parliament. moment”.

“Without being too alarmist and taking into account, without speculation, the sabotage attacks that we have seen – we know that a certain country is an expert in sabotage and subversion – I will continue to repeat what I said last Friday. The Ukrainians are asking us for specific help, a certain type of tanks that can be quickly rearmed in order to regain the lost territories. And I think that’s what the European Union, because the member states have these specific tanks, should provide. Europe has 2,000 on the ground, Ukraine is asking for about 90, which means that their gathering, which can be quickly coordinated in certain cases, would be of great help to Ukraine,” the EP president said.

She said that after what happened on Monday, namely the shelling by Russia of several cities after the attack on the bridge connecting Russia to Crimea, “Ukraine has added to the list of requests for air defense systems and that is now being discussed.”

“There is no doubt that (Vladimir) Putin will not stop. It didn’t stop in 2008, it didn’t stop in 2015, it won’t stop now, given the vulnerability of some very vulnerable states like the Republic of Moldova. Therefore, for me and for this parliament, now is a decisive moment. Because, otherwise, Putin wants a protracted war in which winter will come, and we will find ourselves in a situation where we will take up arms again in the spring,” said the President of the European Parliament.

Asked about Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s statement that Russia was ready for talks but had not received any offer on the matter, Metzola said: “For me, negotiations are negotiations that bring peace, not forced by blackmail.”

“I might have acted differently than a similar statement before, but after what happened this week, let’s not get into a game of who escalated. This is an indiscriminate attack on women, children and men who lived in the center of the capital of Ukraine and in other cities. It’s illegal, it’s war crimes, and the only way we can start a conversation is for Russia to leave Ukraine. Therefore, I will never conduct negotiations on Russia’s terms, but in a situation where weapons are not pointed in one direction, when we can have peace, freedom and justice,” she said.

Regarding fears of a third world war, Roberta Metzola said that “under no circumstances do I want to see calls for calm.”

“I learned my lesson the hard way. We have looked elsewhere for too long, we have ignored the statements of our colleagues in Russia’s neighboring countries, who said that this is a problem, that it is growing, and therefore this is our challenge now, and we must solve it. And we have to solve it by making sure that Ukraine wins the war. This is our ultimate goal and it should be our ultimate goal,” the head of the community’s HO emphasized.

She admitted that she realizes that not all EU countries are on the same page regarding the position on Russia.

“I’m extremely receptive and welcome unity at the table, even though it’s sometimes not communicated. Prime ministers have to overcome this crisis with unprecedented challenges. They thought it was going to be a period of economic growth, and look where we are. Governments have fallen because of this crisis,” noted Roberta Metzola.

She also said that populist and extremist rhetoric is on the rise everywhere and that Russian propaganda often comes to the fore, and EU countries do not have enough tools to counter it.

“I would say that we need to focus on things that we can come together on instead of focusing on individual states saying, ‘Look, I’m going to give Putin a chance to say we’re divided.’ I will not go this way, I have not seen the unity that has now gathered in this parliament in the ten years that I have spent here,” Metsola said.

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