Borrell announces visit to Ukraine

Josep Borrell, top EU representative for external policy and security policy, has announced he will visit Kyiv at the beginning of February following the results of the meeting of ministers of foreign affairs on 22 January.

Source: European Pravda

Details: At the press conference after the EU Council for Foreign Affairs, Borrell said that the issue of support for Ukraine is one of the main topics of discussion between the ministers.

Quote: "The ministers agreed that now is not the time to weaken our support for Ukraine. On the contrary, it is time to do more and faster: in regards to financial resources, military equipment, training of soldiers and everything Ukraine needs for protection."

Borrell stated in this context that the EU will continue working on "foreseeable support" for Kyiv and announced that he would go to Kyiv "on the first or second week of February".

"I hope we will reach an agreement about replenishing the European Peace Fund with €5 billion in order to create a Ukraine Assistance Fund," Borrell added.

He confirmed that the EU had prepared a base document for discussing future support for Ukraine in the form of weapons, and the participants of the meeting on 22 January "agreed that this is a good foundation for reviewing the operation of the European Peace Fund".

Background:

• The European External Action Service proposes to create a special military fund for Ukraine which would absorb a part of the remaining EPF assets and would be replenished with €5 billion annually from 2024 to 2027.
• The idea is to use these funds to pay compensations to the countries for joint procurement of military aid such as ammunition, drones and air defence missiles to supply Ukraine with them.
• Following the results of the meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers, the EU also stated that a political agreement was reached between the EU member states regarding the use of proceeds from frozen Russian assets.

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