Eduardo González
Acting Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares took part yesterday in Kyiv in a historic and absolutely unforeseen EU Foreign Affairs Council (FAC), in which he assured, in relation to some alleged dissenting voices within the Union, that “all” member states had agreed to “continue to support Ukraine as long as necessary”.
“Today we have held here in Kyiv a historic Foreign Affairs Council: it is the first time that EU ministers and the High Representative (for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Josep Borrell) met in the Foreign Affairs Council outside the EU,” Albares told the press at the end of the meeting.
The EU Foreign Affairs ministers met yesterday in the capital by surprise and without any prior announcement, for security reasons. In any case, the meeting took place a few days after several members of the European Commission met in Kyiv with the government of Volodimir Zelenski, including the President of the EU executive, Ursula Von der Leyen, and the High Representative, Josep Borrell, who arrived in the country on September 30 to meet with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmitro Kuleba, and, obviously, ahead of the FAC meeting.
Before yesterday’s meeting, Borrell himself launched a message to possible pro-Russian tendencies within the EU: “If Russia wins the war, the EU is in danger”. This past weekend, the general elections in Slovakia gave victory to the populist social democratic party Smer-SD, in favor of stopping military aid to Ukraine and opposed to the European Union (EU) and NATO. Slovakia, an EU country bordering Ukraine, has so far been one of the largest contributors of aid to Kyiv in relation to its GDP.
In this regard, Albares assured the press that at the FAC meeting there had been, “around the table, all 27, and no one disagreed, we all agreed that we have to continue to support Ukraine as long as necessary, that we have to fight against impunity, so that those who are committing crimes pay for them, and that we have to help Ukraine on its way to the EU”.
Ukraine’s accession and peace plan
Ukraine has had candidate status for EU membership since 2022, shortly after the invasion began, but Brussels has imposed a number of conditions for accession, including the need to be more forceful in the fight against corruption. Zelenski’s government has just launched an anti-corruption campaign that has already resulted in dismissals and even arrests of high-ranking officials and officials of ministries and official agencies.
“There are no rigid deadlines, but there are targets to be achieved,” Von der Leyen stated in Kyiv. In a recent joint communiqué, EU leaders have recognized “the considerable efforts” made by Ukraine in recent months and the Ukrainian government has reiterated its “determination to fulfill the necessary requirements to start accession negotiations as soon as possible,” with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Schmihal expressing his desire for his country to be ready to join the EU within two years. The issue of enlargement, including Ukraine’s entry, will be discussed later this week in Granada during the European Council meeting.
On the other hand, according to Albares, at yesterday’s meeting he himself conveyed to Zelenski Spain’s support for his peace plan. “There are many peace projects and peace plans, but not all have the same content because not all are within the United Nations Charter, and given that there can be no equidistance between the aggressor and the aggressed, the only viable peace plan is one that respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and, therefore, the peace plan of President Zelenski, to which Spain adheres,” he told reporters.
Emma Igual, ambulances and demining
Likewise, the acting minister again addressed “impunity and the fight against impunity” because “the war crimes that are being committed in Ukraine cannot go unpunished”, and held a bilateral meeting with the attorney general of Ukraine, Viktor Vasilevits, “in the same way as he did a week ago in the margins of the UN General Assembly with the attorney general of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, to ask him to investigate, as I did by letter a few days ago, the crime against Emma Igual, our aid worker, as a war crime”.
“He has told me that he is investigating it and that he will be personally transmitting to me everything there is about it,” explained Albares. “I have also had the opportunity, for a few minutes, to go to the Maidan square to see the Spanish flag, which reminds her (Emma Igual) among so many Ukrainian flags and which the Spanish Embassy placed the day of her death with her name, and to pay tribute to her there as well.”
On the other hand, Albares announced yesterday that he had “taken advantage of this trip to continue transferring and reinforcing Spain’s aid to Ukraine” and that, in that sense, he had “brought two armored ambulances that are in addition to the 30 non-armored ones that I contributed on my last trip to Ukraine”. “I have also announced the contribution of one and a half million (euros) for demining, which is in addition to the already 50 million that the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) has already disbursed here in Ukraine as humanitarian aid,” he added.
Before the meeting, the minister was asked by journalists about the agreement in the United States to avoid the shutdown of the federal government, a decision that leaves Kyiv without funds, at least momentarily. “I just spoke with my colleague Antony Blinken (US Secretary of State) and he assures me that Washington is going to continue to support Ukraine for as long as necessary,” he said.
