Preparations for the trip began amid great secrecy weeks ago, but when the political representatives of the Twenty-seven finally landed in Kyiv yesterday, the visit and the message that European support for Ukraine will not waver and will remain as yes or no on the battlefield, it couldn’t seem more timely and unnecessary.
“We are here to express our solidarity and our support for the Ukrainian people”, declared the head of community diplomacy, Josep Borrell, after arriving by train in the Ukrainian capital, where he summoned the foreign ministers by surprise of the EU to hold a historic meeting. It was the first that they celebrated outside the Community territory, in a candidate country and, moreover, at war. And his arrival in the country also coincided with the appearance of some signs of fatigue with Western support for Ukraine.
Just a few hours before the symbolic European visit to Kyiv, the victory of the pro-Russian populist Robert Fico in the elections in Slovakia set off all the alarms in Brussels in view of the possibility of Viktor Orbán’s Hungary finding an ally in his opposition to EU support for Ukraine. At the same time, on the other side of the Atlantic, in the United States, Ukraine became the collateral victim of the budget negotiations between the Republicans, the most radical wing of this party, and the Democrats to avoid in extremis the closure of the Administration: the agreement was only possible without the 6,000 million dollars earmarked for military aid to this country, a policy increasingly questioned in the party of Donald Trump.
Both Borrell and the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmitró Kuleba, were convinced that these latest events do not indicate changes in Western support for the country. “The EU remains united, I don’t see any member state weakening its commitment to support Ukraine”, replied Borrell when asked about possible changes in European foreign policy, since many decisions can only be taken unanimously. “We don’t feel that the support of the United States has broken,” Kuleba said of the decision by the US Congress on his country, which he attributed to an “incident”, not a “systemic” problem.
“The US understands that what is at stake in Ukraine is much bigger than Ukraine,” said the Ukrainian minister. Brussels and Kyiv trust that Washington will approve a decision in the coming days that will allow aid to Ukraine to resume. But “even if it can be rectified, it shows how difficult the discussion is”, declared the head of Lithuanian Foreign Affairs, Gabrielius Landsbergis.
The European foreign ministers, who arrived by night train in Kyiv, reiterated their messages of the “lasting” and “sustained” support that Europe will give to the Ukrainian people. “Today around the table we were all twenty-seven, and no one disagreed, we all agreed that we must continue to support Ukraine for as long as necessary”, assured the Spanish minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares. “Russia must not count on the fatigue” of the Europeans, emphasized her French counterpart, Catherine Colonna.
All countries – apart from Latvia, immersed in government formation negotiations, and Hungary, for obvious reasons – sent their ministers to the Ukrainian capital, where they were received by President Volodymyr Zelenski amid heavy security measures. Before going to Kyiv, Borrell visited Odessa, one of the cities currently most punished by the Russian army. A few minutes after he left, a shower of drones descended on the region. “Your missiles and drones do not intimidate us. We remain determined to support Ukraine”, assured the high representative of the EU’s Foreign Policy.
The meeting was not called to make decisions, but to see first-hand the country’s situation, better understand its needs and reaffirm the EU’s promise to support the country as long as it takes. Both the shipment of military equipment to Kyiv and the budget support are part of the “security commitments” that the EU wants to give to Ukraine. But “the strongest security commitment we can give them is accession to the EU”, remarked Borrell, convinced that this is where the country is heading. It is the promise that Ukraine clings to. Yesterday’s meeting of European ministers took place “outside the current borders of the EU”, but “within its future borders”, Minister Kuleba emphasized on several occasions.
