‘We expect decisions,’ Ukrainian foreign minister tells EU Foreign Affairs Council

On 21 February, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba (pictured) attended a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council. At the meeting, the Council adopted a €1.2 billion macro financial assistance package to send to Ukraine. 

“We expect decisions,” Kuleba said. “There are plenty of decisions the European Union can make now to send clear messages to Russia that its escalations will not be tolerated and Ukraine will not be left on its own.”  

The package was adopted just 21 days after the Commission proposed it, with the Council of the EU citing Ukraine’s loss of capital due to security threats and uncertainty in the region as reasons to fast-track the agreement. It seeks to support economic stability, energy and governance and it will last for 12 months. This is the 6th such package from the EU since 2014, when Russia illegally annexed Crimea. 

Other actions that the EU could take to resolve the situation might include more sanctions on top of those that were imposed in 2014 or a summit between leaders or ministers of the EU and its partners with Russia. 

“Summits, meetings at the level of ministers, at the level of leaders; whatever format, whatever way of talking and sitting around the table…is badly needed,” EU High Representative Josep Borrell said. “We will support anything that can make diplomatic conversations the best and only way to look for a solution to the crisis.” 

All of this takes place as the French Presidency tries to broker a summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin. A spokesperson for the French Presidency announced that both Russia and the U.S. agreed to a summit “in principle,” with the U.S. providing the condition that Russia has not already invaded Ukraine at the time of the Summit.

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