Update on the diplomatic situation
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky not only calls for more deliveries of heavy weapons to his Western allies, but also works to ensure that the 27 countries of the European Union will grant Ukraine official status. candidate for the EU on Thursday at a summit scheduled for Brussels.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has called on European leaders to “to rise to the occasion” stakes by acceding to kyiv’s request. The European executive issued a favorable opinion on Ukraine’s candidacy a few days ago, and on Tuesday the French Minister for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the Council of EU, said that a “full consensus” between the Twenty-Seven had emerged on this issue. In Berlin, the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, called on Wednesday to set up “a Marshall Plan” for the reconstruction of Ukraine. “We will need several billion euros and additional dollars, and this for years”he pointed out.
The European summit is to be followed by two other summits, the G7 and NATO. The question of financial aid to kyiv should be at the heart of the discussions of these three meetings. According to Madrid, Mr. Zelensky will participate by videoconference in the NATO summit, which is to be held from June 28 to 30 in the Spanish capital. “The truth is that we are still far from negotiations between Ukraine and Russia because Putin still believes in the possibility of dictating peace”also estimated Mr. Scholz.
As Moscow commemorates Nazi Germany’s 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, Russian diplomacy has accused Berlin of fueling a “Russophobic hysteria” And this “systematically through almost daily attacks by members of the German government against our country”. Moscow has also received new, thinly veiled support from Chinese President Xi Jinping, who, in an implicit reference to NATO, on Wednesday lambasted “widening military alliances”responsible according to him, among other things, for the crisis in Ukraine.