The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyenand the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign and Security Policy, Joseph Borrellvisit Ukraine this Friday to bring to that country a message of “complete solidarity” from the European Union (EU) and know first-hand what is happening.
The official trip of the president of the Community Executive and the head of European diplomacy coincides with the foreseeable approval of the fifth package of EU sanctions against Russia, which includes for the first time the ban on energy imports, albeit only coal.
New sectoral economic restrictions and individual sanctions that Von der Leyen and Borrell will have the opportunity to personally detail the Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, with whom they plan to hold a meeting, as announced by his spokesman and confirmed later by official sources in Brussels.
The message that von der Leyen will bring to Zelensky and to the Ukrainian people is the “complete solidarity of the EU with Ukraine against the invasion by Russia,” reported the Commission’s chief spokesman, Eric Mamer.
In addition, the former German Defense Minister “will reiterate and discuss all the support that the EU is providing and will continue to provide Ukraine in these difficult circumstances,” he said.
The agenda of the visit in kyiv, of which hardly any details have emerged for security reasons, It also includes other meetings with the foreign and defense ministers, Dmytro Kuleba and Oleksiy Reznikov, respectively, Borrell told the press upon arrival at NATO headquarters to participate in a foreign minister meeting and another from the G7.
After that visit to kyiv “I’m sure we’ll know better what’s going on there,” said the head of European diplomacy, who hopes to be able to inform his interlocutors of the latest European sanctions and “other measures”, which he did not specify.
Borrell insisted today that Ukraine needs “less applause and more weapons”, and opted to continue pressuring Russia with international isolation and more sanctions, also to its oil, which it hopes to include on the list of European sanctions “sooner rather than later”, and which will be on the table of the Council of Community Foreign Ministers next Monday.
“Now we have to look at oil and we will have to look at the income that Russia gets from these fossil fuels,” stressed Von der Leyen on Wednesday before the European Parliament, which today supported by a very large majority a “complete and immediate” European embargo on Russian imports of oil, coal, nuclear fuel and gas.
The commitment to go “further” in the sanctions against Russia had already been defended last Friday in kyiv, before the Russian massacres of civilians around the capital, the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, the first leader of a European institution to go to the country since the war began on February 24 last.
What has the EU done for Ukraine?
The Twenty-seven made it clear on which side they were from the beginning of the Russian military invasion more than 40 days ago.
Since then and in coordination with its Western allies the EU is going to chain five waves of sanctions, increasingly harsh, to try to suffocate the economy that supports the Kremlin’s war machine, and has unlocked military, financial and humanitarian aid for Ukraine.
The EU has gone to the point of open the borders without restrictions to Ukrainians who have fled their country – more than four million, mostly women and children – who are granted temporary status as refugees, that it is the first time that it activates and gives the right to a work permit, residence, health care and education.
Another novel measure taken by the EU has been to approve the spending of one billion euros in military aid to kyiv so that countries can supply weapons on their own from the Fund for Peace, which had never been used for a third country.
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What’s more, the EU has adopted the necessary legislative amendments to allow Member States redirect the resources of various funds worth about 17,000 million euros to help Ukrainian refugees.
To try to raise more funds, on the 9th a donor conference is held in Warsaw for Ukraine sponsored by the European Commission and Canada.