Lviv (Ukraine) (EFE).- The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, assured this Friday that the European Union is not going to be “intimidated” by the Kremlin in its support for Ukraine, which will last “as long as necessary », because that country and the EU are «one family».
“We will support you in everything we can, for as long as it takes. The Kremlin does not and will not intimidate us. Because Ukraine and the EU are a family,” Michel said at a press conference in kyiv at the end of the first Euro-Ukrainian summit since the start of the war of aggression launched by Russia.
The twenty-fourth summit between Ukraine and the EU
This summit, the twenty-fourth held by the two parties, is also the first since Ukraine received the status of candidate country for accession from the EU and was preceded on Thursday by the first meeting between members of the College of European Commissioners and the Ukrainian government.
“Of course, my message is that the future of Ukraine is in the European Union,” Michel continued in his statement, along with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
New sanctions package against Russia
The Belgian politician stressed that the EU has already adopted nine “hard-hitting” sanctions packages against Russia and that they are designing a tenth to further hit the Russian economy and that it lacks the resources to finance the war and deprive it of “technologies critics”.
It is also about “avoiding as much as we can the legal loopholes” that some countries use to avoid sanctions, Michel added.
Von der Leyen, for his part, affirmed that the tenth round of sanctions that Brussels will present with a view to preparing it for the first anniversary of the war, on February 24, will have an impact of “10,000 million euros.”
According to him, more dual-use goods will be sanctioned and the restrictive measures will affect more components of drones that Russia uses to bomb Ukraine.
“It is important that we have the political will to make Russia pay for what it has done to Ukraine,” Von der Leyen stressed, and assured that Russian society and the Russian economy “are already paying a high price for the sanctions.”
“We discussed how to continue supporting Ukraine and how to increase the collective pressure on Russia to end its war of aggression and withdraw its troops from Ukraine,” Michel summed up.
Ukraine and the EU approved a joint statement as a result of the summit highlighting European efforts to sanction Moscow, including a cap on international oil prices and a price cap on Russian oil products.
Zelensky calls for long-range weapons from the West to “liberate” Bakhmut and insists on more sanctions for Russia
The President of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelensky, assured today that his army is capable of “liberating” the strategic city of Bakhmut from the encirclement of Russian troops, but to achieve this he demanded the supply of long-range weapons by his Western allies.
“We are not going to give up Bakhmut, we will fight as long as we are able to, but we need more help,” said Zelensky, in an appearance with the presidents of the European Commission (EC) and the European Council, Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, after the summit.
Zelensky insisted today on the need to adopt “new and tougher” sanctions against Russia, given the danger that this “terrorist state” manages to restore its “production capacities” and its defenses.
“We have all the facts that show that it is a terrorist state,” said the Ukrainian leader at the end of the EU-Ukraine summit held in kyiv.
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