Ukraine needs lasting peace, not another frozen conflict – EC President

The relevant statement was made by President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen at the EU Ambassadors Conference in Brussels, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

“The first objective must be to continue to work for a just and lasting peace, not another frozen conflict. No one wants peace more than the Ukrainian people. The main pathway to achieve this is President Zelenskyy's Peace Formula,” von der Leyen said.

She mentioned that the European Commission had participated in all three meetings of National Security Advisers, namely in Copenhagen, Jeddah and Malta, where more than 60 representatives focused efforts to prepare a future Ukraine Peace Summit.

“So let me ask all of you to keep on engaging to gather more and more support for the Peace Formula from countries across the world. I know it is not easy, I know it is hard work, but in the essence, in the end, the whole world would benefit from a just and lasting peace in Ukraine. That has to be our main mission,” von der Leyen noted.

Separately, the President of the European Commission emphasized that Ukraine needs long-term security. In this regard, the European Union should ensure a sustained military force capable of defending Ukraine now and deterring Russian aggression in the future, so that “history does not repeat itself”.

According to von der Leyen, this has strong implications for the EU’s defense industry. For this reason, the EU has introduced ASAP, the Act in Support of Ammunition Production.

The President of the European Commission stressed that, in addition to ammunition, it is necessary to help Ukraine with the development of air defenses and maritime capabilities. In the middle and longer run, this will also include cyber and space capacities.

“These are capabilities that are European by nature – if you look at them. They require European cooperation not only on research and development but also on the industrial front. We have to ensure now that no industrial bottleneck prevents us from protecting Europe and giving our full support to Ukraine. It is a window of opportunity now. And I would urge us to use this window of opportunity because it would allow us to take more decisive steps towards a genuine European Defence Union. This is a task I am very much supporting and working hard for,” von der Leyen concluded.

A reminder that the European Union continues to provide significant political, diplomatic, economic, financial, humanitarian and military support for Ukraine in its struggle against Russian armed aggression. Since February 2022, Ukraine has received more than EUR 82 billion in aid from EU countries.