Borrell to visit Ukraine prior to end of his term of office

This was stated by EU High Representative on Friday at a press conference following the informal meeting of EU defense ministers in Brussels, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

Borrell said that the EU countries should integrate Ukrainian defense into their industrial base. According to him, there is much to learn from the Ukrainians to increase the EU innovation in defense, and that is why they are opening the European Union Defense Innovation Office in Kyiv together with the European Commission. "It will open soon, maybe in September", he added.

Borrell also said that he plans to visit Ukraine in September or October before the end of his term as High Representative, in order to give a final push to the EU cooperation with Ukraine on military support, which was an important part of his mission.

As reported earlier, an informal meeting of the EU ministers in the Gymnich format took place in Brussels on Aug 29-30. On Aug 29, the EU foreign ministers held discussions on the most important foreign policy issues, while on Aug 30, the security issues were discussed by the ministers of defense of the EU countries. The main topic on the agenda of both meetings was EU's military support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression.