Moscow (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – On Sunday, Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, charged that the European Union was using Russia’s “fiend of hell” image to defend its ongoing military assistance to Ukraine and drive the crisis further.
“They are creating an enemy image of Russia both domestically and internationally,”
Peskov stated, adding that this approach helps efforts to supply more Western arms to Kyiv. Peskov also asserted that this kind of rhetoric is used to transfer the burden of war onto European taxpayers.
Is Russia truly a danger to NATO members?
Earlier, Peskov stated that NATO was rapidly militarising and aiming to depict Russia as a “fiend of hell” to justify a significant rise in member countries’ defence budgets. Russia denies any intention to attack NATO. However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that efforts to reassure the alliance are “largely a wasted effort” because they are intent on demonising Russia.
“It is an alliance created for confrontation… It is not an instrument of peace and stability,”
he stated, citing NATO’s preference to get members to devote to spending 5% of their GDP to defence, as required by U.S. President Donald Trump.
“The alliance is confidently moving along the path of rampant militarisation,”
Peskov said. In order to push through the 5% target, it was necessary for NATO to conjure up a demonic threat, he added.
“To do this, you need to draw a picture of a fiend of hell, a monster. And the point of view of these NATO functionaries, our country is the one best suited for the role of the monster.”
How much military support is the EU giving Ukraine?
According to reports, the European Union’s military assistance to Ukraine has been robust and continues to increase in size and scope in 2025. Since the start of the war, the EU and its 27 Member States have collectively provided Ukraine with $180 billion worth of financial, military, humanitarian, and refugee assistance.
Of the total contributions, approximately 65% is grants or in-kind assistance, and 35% is highly concessional loans.
For the year 2025, the EU pledged approximately $8.7 billion in financial assistance, which includes new military assistance, in part from frozen Russian assets.
Through the European Peace Facility, the EU pledged almost €2 billion in 2025 solely for military assistance, including plans to send Ukraine more than 1.35 million rounds of artillery shells and investment into strengthening Ukrainian air defences and weapons maintenance.
