The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, announced, on Monday 21 August, that the EU was working on a “high-level meeting, probably during the week of the United Nations General Assembly” (UNGA) at the end of September, to discuss peace in Ukraine.
According to a European source quoted by Politico, the High Representative was referring to a plan to transform a meeting of political directors organised on the fringes of the UNGA into a ministerial meeting. This meeting would follow up on the discussions between some forty countries held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, at the beginning of August.
Asked about this on 22 August, the spokesman for the European External Action Service, Peter Stano, would not confirm the holding of such a meeting, but added that the possibility of a peace summit had been discussed several times. He pointed out that the subject of Ukraine will be discussed at the informal meetings of European defence and foreign affairs ministers on 30 and 31 August in Toledo (Spain).
The continuation of EU military support to Ukraine, including a strengthening of the ‘European Peace Facility’ (EPF), could be discussed at the meeting (see EUROPE 13227/2), while the United States has approved the dispatch of F-16 aircraft from Denmark and the Netherlands to Ukraine as soon as pilot training is completed. On 19 August, the Ukrainian Defence Minister, Oleksiy Reznikov, announced the start of this training, which is expected to last at least 6 months. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Netherlands is to supply his country with 42 F-16s and Denmark with 19. Mr Borrell said that the EU could use the EPF to cover part of the costs incurred, if the countries concerned so requested.
On the ground, Russian strikes against civilian installations, including grain stores, have increased in number in recent weeks. According to the Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister, Oleksandr Kubrakov, at least 270,000 tonnes of grain have been destroyed in the space of a month.
On 23 August, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, “strongly” condemned the Russian drone attack on the Ukrainian port of Izmail earlier in the day. A school was also targeted by a Russian strike in Romny (north-east of the country), killing at least four people. “Russia is deliberately and systematically targeting civilian infrastructure and destroying tonnes of grain meant to feed the world. These and other attacks against civilians are war crimes Russia will be held accountable for”, warned Mrs von der Leyen.
On 20 August, the High Representative strongly condemned a “cowardly and deliberate” strike on Chernihiv, targeting a university and a theatre in the centre of the city, killing at least seven civilians, including children, and injuring many more (see EUROPE 13191/8). (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)