Foreign ministers of several European Union nations gathered in Kyiv on Monday in a meeting that E.U. foreign policy chief Josep Borrell lauded as “historic.” The event culminated in Borrell’s proposing up to 5 billion euros, or about $5.2 billion, in additional aid to Ukraine.
It was a stark contrast from recent developments in Washington, where Congress over the weekend passed a short-term funding bill stripped of additional aid for Ukraine to avert a government shutdown. President Biden has sought to reassure Kyiv, stating that he hoped Republicans would “keep their word” on pursuing separate measures that would include more aid for Ukraine.
“We cannot under any circumstances allow America’s support for Ukraine to be interrupted. Too many lives are at stake, too many children, too many people,” Biden said at a Cabinet meeting Monday afternoon, according to CNN.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
The meeting in Kyiv marked the first time E.U. foreign ministers gathered outside of E.U. territory and in a country at war, Borrell said at a news conference Monday. “By coming to Kyiv, the European Union’s foreign ministers sent a strong message of solidarity and support to Ukraine in the face of this unjust and illegitimate war,” he added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with the foreign ministers about Ukraine’s hopes to join the European Union. “We will implement all recommendations,” Zelensky said, according to an account from the Ukrainian president’s office, referring to seven recommendations that Ukraine received for the start of negotiations for E.U. membership. In his nightly address, Zelensky called Ukraine “a leader in protecting the very foundations on which European unity rests.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba expressed confidence that U.S. lawmakers will support Kyiv’s war effort, despite the lack of aid in the U.S. government’s latest short-term funding bill. “We are now working with both sides of the Congress to make sure that it does not repeat again,” he said Monday. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) were among the Republican leaders who signaled during television interviews that more aid is in the pipeline.
The city of Kharkiv is planning to build Ukraine’s first underground school to protect against missile threats, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram. Kharkiv has already put together 60 classrooms inside its subway stations ahead of the school year, Terekhov said, allowing more than 1,000 children to continue their studies underground.
Poland delivered its first batch of refurbished Leopard tanks to Ukraine, the Polish Armaments Group (PGZ) announced on social media Monday. The group, an industrial partner of the Polish Armed Forces, also said it is working on repairing more tanks for Kyiv.
At least two people were killed and seven others were injured in attacks on the region of Kherson, its governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, said on Telegram early Tuesday.
Germany said it provided Ukraine with thousands of additional rounds of ammunition and several vehicles, including two mine-clearing tanks, 14 tracked all-terrain vehicles and 12 semitrailers. Denmark also pledged an additional $14 million in ammunition for Ukraine.
Analysis from our correspondents
The European officials in Kyiv and their Ukrainian counterparts wanted to show the world — and Russia, in particular — that their unity was intact, Ishaan Tharoor writes.
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