Taarifa has learned that European Union Foreign Ministers have gathered in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv for the Foreign Affairs Council session.
This is the first ever such meeting of all 27 member states outside the EU bloc.
“We are convening a historic meeting of EU Foreign Ministers here in Ukraine, candidate country and future member of the EU,” the bloc’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell announced on Monday.
The visit was not publicly announced in advance for security reasons.
In a joint press conference with Borrell, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, the diplomats said, the meetings were not to seek to reach concrete conclusions but to discuss Europe’s present and future support for Ukraine.
Kuleba told reporters that the fact that the EU foreign ministers are meeting in Kyiv “is a message of the unfettered support that the European Union is extending for Ukraine.”
The EU chief diplomats will also study President Volodymyr Zelensky’s peace formula for ending the ongoing war, Borrell added.
The Foreign Affairs Council convenes at least once per month to define and implement the EU’s foreign and security policy.
“This is a historic event because for the fist time ever the foreign affairs council is going to sit down outside of its current borders – outside the borders of the European Union – but within future borders of the European Union,” Kuleba told reporters.
However, the Italian news agency ANSA reported on Sept. 18, citing three unnamed sources, that the bloc’s foreign ministers would convene in Kyiv in early October for the next Foreign Affairs Council meeting.
The officials would reportedly address Ukraine’s accession to the EU, military support for Kyiv’s fight against Russian aggression, and tightening sanctions against Moscow, the news agency said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has pushed for fast-track membership due to the Russian invasion.
Borrell said, “We are convening in a historic meeting of the EU foreign ministers here in Ukraine, candidate country and future member of the EU.Ukraine’s future lies within the EU.”
