Agnes Szucs
02 February 2023•Update: 02 February 2023
BRUSSELS
The European Union will announce it will train an additional 15,000 Ukrainian troops through its military assistance mission and allocate €25 million ($27.3 million) for de-mining operations in deliberated Ukrainian territories at a summit, Anadolu learned Wednesday.
Top EU officials, including the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and European Council head Charles Michel, will travel to Kyiv for the 24th EU-Ukraine summit Feb. 3.
The meeting will take place for the first since the beginning of the war and Ukraine has received EU candidate status.
The bloc considers the summit a “strong signal that we support the country that is a victim of an aggression and that we underline the right of Ukraine to have a just peace at the end of this war,” a EU official told reporters in Brussels.
Von der Leyen and Michel will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, while members of the Commission will hold talks with the Ukrainian ministers in charge of their portfolio.
The leaders will discuss Ukraine’s EU accession process, the bloc’s response to Russia’s war against Ukraine, as well as Zelenskyy’s peace plan.
They will “reiterate our commitment to support Ukraine’s further European integration,” according to another official.
And will also bring a message acknowledging reforms that Ukraine has already implemented, especially concerning the rule of law, and will encourage Kyiv to continue measures to meet the bloc’s accession criteria.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell will pledge a “new package of €25 million to support humanitarian de-mining action” in territories that have been recently reconquered by the Ukrainian army after temporary Russian occupation, said the first EU official.
He will also announce a new target for the EU’s military training mission in Ukraine, involving 15,000 soldiers in addition to the current 15,000 troops,
Borrell is also expected to express the EU’s support for setting up the International Center for the Prosecution of Crime of Aggression in Ukraine in the Hague, Netherlands.
Since the beginning of Russia’s war against Ukraine last February, the EU and its member states have provided €50 billion in direct support to Ukraine, including more than €12 billion in military aid, according to the bloc’s estimates.
The EU has imposed nine sanctions packages against Russia, targeting, among others, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, banning gold, oil and coal imports and the export of luxury goods and high-tech technology, as well as excluding Russian and Belarusian banks from the SWIFT international payment system.
