The decision on whether or not Ukraine should sit down to negotiate peace with Russia belongs exclusively to the Ukrainians, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs of the European Union, Josep Borrell, reiterated today. This is the message that the EU foreign ministers transmitted to the head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmitro Kuleba, by videoconference today. The EU will be on his side "until Ukraine's victory", Borrell summed up the same day that US and Russian envoys sat down to discuss the Ukrainian war in Ankara amid strong signs that Washington wants President Volodymyr Zelensky sits down to negotiate. The definition of what victory consists of will be taken according to their own parameters, he has insisted. "Ukraine will decide what to do. Our task is to support them."
About nine months after the start of the war, Ukraine has once again packed the work agenda of European ministers. The advances of the Ukrainian army are "good news" and show that "the strategy of supporting Ukraine militarily was the correct one", Borrell emphasized after the Russian forces withdrew from the city of Kherson this weekend, online with the message that Kuleba has conveyed to the European ministers. The Russian departure from the disputed city shows that his country "can win the war", said the head of Ukrainian diplomacy. "We must stand united and firm to restore peace and security in Europe."
To date, the countries of the European Union have sent to Kyiv weapons and war material worth "at least 8,000 million euros", an amount that is equivalent to almost half of the military aid provided by the United States. Ukraine continues to need weapons and the EU has begun to discuss an increase in financial resources for the European Peace Support Fund, the intergovernmental instrument created to cover part of the material it sends to Ukraine, but decisions are not expected until the December meeting .
On the other hand, the Twenty-seven today gave birth to the imminent start of the European mission to train 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers in community territory, agreed in January in another example of the bloc's high level of involvement in supporting Kyiv. The training will take place mainly in Poland, although part of the sessions will also be held in Germany and France, where its Secretary of State for the European Union, Laurence Boone, has confirmed that 2,000 soldiers will be trained.
The mission will be operational "in a couple of weeks," Borrell announced. The mission's mandate is initially two years (regardless of how long the war lasts, since before the start of the EU had already discussed the possibility of helping the Ukrainian army to improve its training) and it will have a budget of 106.7 million euros. The details will be analyzed tomorrow by the European defense ministers.
Despite pressure from the representatives of the Baltic countries and Poland to approve a new package of sanctions against Russia, as Kuleba has asked the foreign ministers today, for the moment there is no consensus on this. Each round of restrictive measures has been more difficult to pass than the previous one. Although Hungary has not succeeded in blocking any, it has hindered their adoption and is now opposed to the fact that the 18,000 million euros that the EU wants to provide to Ukraine next year, at a rate of 1,500 million per month, to cover the current expenses of the state, are financed through a common debt issue to cover the loans.
