We are going to have a Foreign Affairs Council and tomorrow, a Defence Council. Both will be focusing on Ukraine. Today, an important decision is the launching of the [Military Assistance] training Mission for the Ukrainian army (EUMAM). As you know, we have been discussing it and we have decided it in record time. The mission will be launched, and it will be operational in a couple of weeks.
#eudebates the unique initiative aiming to promote debate, dialogue, knowledge, participation and communication among citizens. #PUTIN #war #EuropeanUnion #VonderLeyen #putinswar #Russia #putinspeech #sanctions
It will be in Poland [and Germany], and there are lot of countries willing to participate in this training mission, which will be training about 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers.
The news from the Ukrainian war are very good for the Ukrainians. Apart from retaking [the city of] Kherson, the Russian army is retreating. That is very good news. It seems that the strategy of supporting Ukraine militarily was the good one.
We have to continue. We have to continue supporting Ukraine with our military capacities, putting pressure on Russia, and reaching out to the rest of the world to face the consequences of this war.
We will discuss the amount of our military support, which is bigger than some news say. I think it is very important to put the right figures on the table. I will talk about it after the Council, because certainly the military support of the European Union plus the member states is quite important.
Secondly, we will discuss about the Western Balkans. Kosovo and Serbia have kept me busy this weekend in Paris. I met with Prime Minister [of Kosovo, Albin] Kurti and with President [of Serbia, Aleksandar] Vučić.
We are unhappily on the edge of another crisis. We have to go out of the crisis mode and look for a structural approach. We presented a proposal. This proposal has to be discussed. It is a good way out of the situation. I have to call on both parties to fulfill their commitments, to respect their engagements, to implement past agreements, that have already been agreed many years ago, and embark on looking for a structural solution.
Iran will be also on the agenda. Today, we are going to approve another package of sanctions against the people responsible for the repression of the demonstrators. I talked yesterday with the Iranian Minister [for Foreign Affairs, Hossein Amirabdollahian]. We discussed about that. We discussed about the JCPOA. We discussed about the military support of Iran to Russia that has to stop.
These are the three most important issues for today. We also have to have a look at the situation in the Great Lakes, where [there is] some news, from the point of view of more military engagement of the Kenyan troops, to another big crisis in Africa.
