EU leaders discuss the Russia-Ukraine crisis

Following the meeting, President of the European Council Charles Michel said: “We had a meeting, an informal meeting of the European Council just before the start of the summit with Africa, and it was the occasion to express our very strong unity, together with the member states and together with NATO. It was also the occasion to express our support to Ukraine. It was also the occasion to give the message that we believe that we must use all the diplomatic tools, all the diplomatic formats in order to de-escalate, to resolve those difficulties. And finally, we are firm: we are determined to protect, to defend our values. We are monitoring the situation on a daily basis; we are following closely the situation. Just before the start of the meeting with the European colleagues, I had a phone call with President Zelensky informing me about the latest developments on the ground and we urge Russia to de-escalate. We need tangible, visible effects on the ground.”

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the Commission Josep Borrell made the following remarks: “The European Union Council has been considering the situation in the Eastern borders of Europe, in the border between Ukraine and Russia. We have gotten news about some withdrawal of troops, but we do not have evidence of it.

I am just coming from a NATO Ministerial meeting to talk about the coordination between the European Union and NATO. And, certainly, nobody has evidence of this withdrawal of troops.

But on what we have evidence, and we are very concerned and worried, is about the increasing fighting and heavy shelling in some parts of the contact line [in the eastern Ukraine], exactly the part that I was visiting at the beginning of January, where there was not any military activity on the last month. On the last hours, there has been heavy shelling, heavy bombing, fighting, and also we noticed a lots of disinformation from Russian sites in order to create an atmosphere of alleged attacks against Russian people in this part of Ukraine.

If you add to that the fact that the Duma has voted to ask President [of Russia, Vladimir] Putin to recognise the independence of these two separatist Republics, the whole package increases our concerns. Certainly, we are very worried.”

More information

Informal meeting of the members of the European Council, 17 February 2022

Russia/Ukraine and 6th EU - AU Summit: Remarks by High Representative Josep Borrell upon arrival