The EU have established an intelligence center in Spain which might prove to be the first major step toward a more organized European military intervention in Ukraine. The main purpose of the said satellite center is to monitor the Russian troops and their movements.
Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, said at a press conference on Monday that the EU’s satellite center in Madrid, Spain, would be used to offer intelligence to the Ukrainian government about Russian army activities.
This comes after President Zelensky declared the next 24 hours to be “crucial” for Ukraine. “The European Union has asked its satellite center in Madrid to provide intelligence to Ukraine about Russian troop movements and EU countries are determined to further increase their bilateral military support to Kiyv,” Borrell said at the press conference, according to a Reuters summary of his remarks.
Borrell commented on Europe’s recent round of punitive economic, trade, and airspace restriction actions, saying: “But we have to be ready to pay the price, or we will have to pay a much higher price in the future.” He added: “Relations with Russia will no longer be determined by trade.”
Russia has maintained to issue dramatic threats, as its central bank and able to engage in the SWIFT international payment system are now being concentrated on by the US and Europe, with the most recent being an enhanced nuclear stance:
Russia’s defense ministry says its strategic missile forces and Northern and Pacific fleets have been placed on enhanced combat duty in line with an order from Putin, according to a report by the Interfax news agency.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told Putin that “shifts on duty at the command posts of the Strategic Missile Forces, the Northern and Pacific Fleets, and the Long-Range Aviation Command began to carry out combat duty with reinforced personnel”, Interfax quoted the ministry as saying.
Given that Borrell has effectively proclaimed the Madrid satellite intelligence post to be a Ukraine-focused command center, it may be the first major step toward a more organized European military intervention to the Ukraine crisis – or at the very least the beginning of prolonged military support on the ground. It follows the EU’s announcement that member nations will provide combat jets to Ukraine.
Simultaneously, the UK has stated that British people heading to Ukraine to join Ukrainian soldiers in their struggle against the Russians will be provided with “support.”
In answer to a query from the BBC on whether Britons should join the battle, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss stated on Sunday, “Absolutely, if people want to support that struggle I would support them in doing that,” she said.
“That is something people can make their own decisions about. The people of Ukraine are fighting for freedom and democracy, not just for Ukraine but for the whole of Europe,” Truss said.
However, as one source put it: “Truss’s comment has taken many by surprise, as it seems to be a direct violation of the Foreign Enlistment Act 1870, which criminalizes British citizens who serve in the armed forces of another country.”
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