The EU earlier this week approved its 13th package of sanctions against Russia over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, targeting foreign companies that provide Moscow with technologies it needs to continue its assault.
Ursula von der Leyen, Belgium’s Alexander de Croo and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni arrived in Kyiv on Saturday morning as the country marks two years of war with Russia.
The European Commission chief said this trip to the war-torn country, her seventh since Russia first rolled its tanks into Ukraine on February 24, 2022, is “to celebrate the extraordinary resistance of the brave Ukrainian people” and give “moral support” to Ukrainians.
In the Ukrainian capital, the mood was subdued on Saturday morning as locals relive the horrors of that day when the worst scenario came true.
“It is strange to call it an anniversary. Anniversaries are for celebrating something nice,” one young girl told Euronews’ Meabh McMahon on Saturday morning in Kyiv.
“There is war but locals are finding ways to cope. Everyone is damaged, everyone has lost something.” A Kyiv-based Ukrainian official also said after what he described as a “heavy night in Kyiv.”
People, he added, go to the cinema hoping they will be able to watch a full movie and not be interrupted by an alarm warning of incoming Russian strikes. Children, who often cannot physically attend school because most lack shelters against drones and missiles, play in the streets.
Kyiv residents appear to be going about their daily lives amidst the sirens and shocks yet the country’s allies have to fight accusations of war fatigue.
It took EU leaders several weeks to approve a €50 billion package of support to Ukraine that will allow them to continue financing some essential services over the next four years. Discussions over a special EU fund to ramp up deliveries of weapons to Ukraine are still, however, very much ongoing.
In the US, a package of assistance worth about €55 billion is still stuck in Congress and has been for weeks.
Meanwhile, the EU approved its 13th package of sanctions against Russia over the war earlier this week. The new raft of measures targets companies from third countries including China, India, and Turkey, that allow Russia to circumvent Western sanctions and get hold of forbidden items.
G7 countries – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States – will meet virtually this afternoon with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expected to join.