War in Ukraine: priority for peace, “unwavering support” from the European Union… update on the situation

EU assures Ukraine of 'unwavering support' after Trump victory

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, sought on Saturday to reassure Ukraine of Europe's unwavering support, amid uncertainty linked to Donald Trump's electoral victory in the United States. -United.

The first senior EU official to visit kyiv since the US president's re-election, Josep Borrell said the aim of his visit was to reaffirm the EU's support for Ukraine, amid war with Russia has been going on for almost 1,000 days. The European Union has already provided 122 billion euros ($131 billion) in military and financial support to Ukraine and trained around 60,000 Ukrainian troops, Josep Borrell said, adding that the number could reach 75,000. here the end of winter.

“This support remains unwavering. This support is absolutely necessary for you to continue to defend yourself against Russian aggression”he said at a joint press conference with the Ukrainian foreign minister in kyiv. “We need faster deliveries and fewer self-imposed red lines”he said, reaffirming his support for Ukraine's request to authorize long-range strikes on military targets in Russia.

Support from Western allies has been essential to Ukraine's ability to defend itself against Russia. Donald Trump criticized the scale of US military and financial support for kyiv and pledged to end the war quickly, without specifying how. President Volodymyr Zelensky was among the first leaders to congratulate Donald Trump and made it clear that his conversations with the US president-elect should continue.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha expressed the hope that the United States will continue to play a leading role towards a “just peace”adding that the teams would begin to prepare for a possible future meeting between the two leaders. He gave no further details. Josep Borrell, who is due to leave office next month, said EU defense ministers would meet next week to discuss continued support for Ukraine, both military and diplomatic, and that 'they would argue in favor of a “strengthening support at this critical time”.

Ukrainian troops are in a weak position on the front line, as Russia advances in the eastern Donetsk region. Russian forces currently occupy around 20% of Ukrainian territory.

Tusk will meet Macron, Starmer, Rutte to talk about Ukraine and NATO

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk plans talks in the coming days with Emmanuel Macron, Keir Starmer, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and leaders of the Baltic and Nordic countries on transatlantic ties and the war in Ukraine in the run-up to the coming to power of Donald Trump in Washington.

“Clearly, the new political landscape is a serious challenge for all of us, especially in the context of a possible halt to the Russian-Ukrainian war that would result from an agreement, for example, between the President of Russia and the new president of the United States”declared the head of the Polish government, a pro-European liberal, on Saturday.

“In the coming days, we will very intensively coordinate our cooperation with countries that have a very similar vision of the geopolitical and transatlantic situation and the situation in Ukraine”he said.

Donald Tusk said that the French president and the NATO secretary general would soon visit Warsaw. He added that he planned to meet with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Warsaw or London and said he also plans to meet Baltic and Nordic leaders in Stockholm.

“All this, of course, in the context of the new challenges that await our country, the entire region, the European Union and the Western community”underlined Donald Tusk, reaffirming that Europe must rely more and more on itself to ensure its security and that the future of Ukraine cannot be decided without the Ukrainians.

Priority in Ukraine is peace, not return of territory, says Trump adviser

An adviser to US President-elect Donald Trump said in an interview broadcast on Saturday that the new administration's priority would be bringing peace to Ukraine and not returning lost territories, including Crimea.

Bryan Lanza, a longtime Republican Party strategist, told the BBC that the Trump administration would ask Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for a “realistic vision of peace”. “If President Zelensky comes to the negotiating table and says that we can only have peace if we have Crimea, he shows us that he is not serious. Crimea no longer exists.”he declared. “If your priority is to reclaim Crimea and send American soldiers to fight to reclaim it, you are on your own.”

The priority is, according to him, “peace and an end to the massacres”. “What we're going to say to Ukraine is: 'What do you think is a realistic vision of peace? It's not a vision of victory, it's a vision of peace. Let's start having a conversation honest”he said.

Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014 after an uprising that prompted Ukraine's pro-Russian president to flee. More than two and a half years after the start of the invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces control just under 20% of its territory. Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly stated that peace cannot be established until all Russian forces are expelled and all territories conquered by Moscow, including Crimea, are returned.

Son “victory plan” presented last month maintains this line and encourages Ukraine's entry into NATO, which Russia refuses. Ukraine has asked the United States to provide it with modern weapons and permission to use them on Russian targets, but it has never requested the deployment of American forces on its territory.

Russian troops failed in their attempt to advance on the Ukrainian capital, kyiv, but have overrun villages on the Eastern Front in recent months. Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin said in June that peace negotiations involved Ukraine abandoning four regions annexed by Moscow even though it does not have full control of them.

During the election campaign, Donald Trump declared that he would end the war “in one day” without saying how he would achieve it. Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump spoke by telephone this week, a conversation joined by pro-Trump billionaire Elon Musk, according to media reports.