European Union Foreign Ministers have gathered in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital for an unannounced informal meeting.
According to officials, the meeting, held on Monday, October 2, 2023, will focus on all aspects of “EU support to Ukraine, with particular focus on continued military assistance, EU accession, as well as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s proposed peace formula.
Zelenskyy’s 10-point peace plan has been discussed by national security representatives twice in the past year, but not at this level.
EU Foreign Policy Chief, Josep Borrell said the foreign ministers’ first joint meeting outside EU borders signaled that the 27-nation bloc’s support is “unwavering” and underscored the EU’s commitment to Ukraine.
“We are convening a historic meeting of EU Foreign Ministers here in Ukraine, candidate country and future member of the EU,” said Josep Borrell said on X.
In a separate message, he said, “Ukraine’s future lies within the EU.”
In a news conference on Sunday, October 1, 2023, Borrell stated that the European Union is determined to continue, and to increase, its support for Ukraine.
“Our support to Ukraine not only continues, but increases, or at least by the time being, the provision on the table shows that we want to continue increasing it,” Borrell said.
Brussels’s military support for Ukraine has reached 25 billion euros ($26.4 billion), Borrell disclosed, adding that altogether, military, civilian and humanitarian aid has reached 85 billion euros ($89.8 billion).
Such an amount is “the highest in the world, and we are proud of it and we know how important it is”, he added.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba on Monday welcomed the event.
“This a historic event because for the first time ever the foreign affairs council is going to sit down outside of its current borders — outside the borders of the European Union — but within future borders of the European Union,” he told reporters.
The foreign ministers of Hungary and Poland were not at the Kyiv gathering. However, it is not unusual for diplomats to skip such informal meetings.
Meanwhile, Danish Foreign Minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen said Europe must be ready to provide further help “for many good reasons.”
“First of all, in order to support Ukraine, but also to send a strong trans-Atlantic signal that what’s going on on our own soil is something we have to take on a great responsibility for,” Løkke Rasmussen said.
Luxembourg Foreign Minister, Jean Asselborn also opined that Western allies must keep up the military aid “because if we don’t deliver any weapons from the EU, from NATO, from other countries, then this war is over but with the wrong consequences.”
A Demonstration Of Lasting Support For Ukraine
French Foreign Minister, Catherine Colonna told reporters that Moscow “should not count on [Europe’s] weariness” over the war in Ukraine.
She said that the EU Foreign Ministers meeting in the Ukrainian capital is “a demonstration of our resolute and lasting support for Ukraine, until it can win.”
“We will be there for a long time to come,” she added.
Ukraine is bent on becoming a member of the EU, and EU officials have encouraged that course even though it could take years amid a war of attrition with no end in sight.
“With every village, with every meter that Ukraine liberates, with every meter in which it rescues its people, it is also paving its way to the European Union,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told reporters in Kyiv.
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