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Midday press briefing from 16/04/2026

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I have several questions.

The first, we have some commentary on attack on Kiev and other Ukrainian city yesterday or today night and some maybe some reaction because it was a very, very big attack and yesterday Ministry for Defense of Russia,

they published a list of drone producer and other military enterprises on the territory of the EU, which allegedly supply some equipment for Ukraine,

and it was an ambiguous message like EU citizens should be careful and should know where the location of these enterprises.

Do you consider it a direct threat to attack this drone producer on the territory of the EU?

Yes, and it's with pain that we see this endless attacks on Ukraine, but Anitta, absolutely,

and this shows once more that Russia is not at all interested in peace. Russia's armed forces deliberately carried out this.

Strikes on Ukrainian emergency system terrorizing the civilians as he knows best.

So our thoughts are with the wounded and their families, and we're supporting throughout Ukraine to withstand and Go to this war of terror on our side, what we will do is also what we have done so far with further engagement,

and we will step up all our efforts to support Ukraine, be it with the sanctions,

be it with the financial aid, and to our defense.

And you had you had on the drones here again, let's start with the basics. The basics are the following.

Russia is an aggressor state with criminal behaviors, and this is shown not only in Russia,

where Putin has basically massacred the whole opposition, not only in Ukraine, but throughout the world.

So what is in their playbook, it's repressing. Killing, threatening, creating destruction.

This is also what they are trying to do now.

So from our side, we will not dignify these comments with any detail in this regard,

but we will point to what are we doing and we are supporting Ukraine.

We are scaling up our own defense and actually what Putin and Russia should.

Better is first engage in peace with real intention and also should look at their own crippling economy instead of waging their war of terror,

because what we have seen in the first quarter of this year is that the Russian budget deficit almost doubled from the same quarter last year and is more than the entire planned deficit for 2026 as the war in Ukraine. With its public finances.

Also, Russia has lost and is continuously suffering extreme losses,

with estimated total casualties exceeding 1.2 million.

So again, it is about time for Russia to stop its war of terror and aggression on our side.

We will continue our work for peace with Ukraine and for Ukraine.

Thank you, Anitta. Other questions to Anitta Jorge.

Media information
ID I-287706
Date 16/04/2026
Duration 03:41
Personalities Anitta Hipper
Institution European Commission
Views 258

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