KYIV (Reuters) – EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell sought to reassure Ukraine of Europe’s unwavering support on Saturday, days after Donald Trump’s election win cast uncertainty over its war effort.
Borrell, the first top EU official to visit Kyiv since Trump’s win, said that the purpose of his visit was to stress EU support for Ukraine, as its war with Russia nears 1,000 days.
The European Union has already provided 122 billion euros ($131 billion) in military and financial support to Ukraine and trained about 60,000 Ukrainian soldiers, said Borrell, adding that the bloc aimed to reach 75,000 by the end of the winter.
“This support remains unwavering. This support is absolutely needed for you to continue defending yourself against Russia’s aggression,” Borrell said during a joint news 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 plea to allow long-range strikes on military targets inside Russia.
Support from Western allies has been key to Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against Russia’s much larger and better-equipped enemy.
Although the United States is a key ally, Trump has criticised the scale of its military and financial support for Kyiv and has pledged to end the war quickly, without saying how.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was among the first leaders to congratulate Trump and said that his conversations with the U.S. president-elect should continue.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said that Kyiv hoped for continued U.S. leadership in helping achieve “just peace”, adding that the teams would start to prepare a potential future meeting between the two leaders. He gave no other details.
Borrell, who is set to leave office next month, said that EU defence ministers would gather next week to discuss continued support to Ukraine, both military and diplomatic, and would make a case for “boosting support at this critical hour”.
Ukrainian troops are on the back foot on the frontline as Russia steadily advances in the eastern Donetsk region. Russian forces currently occupy about 20% of Ukrainian territory.
($1 = 0.9330 euros)
(Reporting by Yurii Kovalenko and Olena Harmash; Editing by Alexander Smith)
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