Heavy Russian bombardment of Kharkiv. Further EU sanctions against Moscow

This is the first time that the extension of sanctions – which is usually decided on a six-monthly basis – has been applied for a year. In any case, this is a political endorsement. The formal decision, in fact, rests with the ministerial configurations of the EU Council.

Also on the agenda of the EU Council is the conundrum of who should negotiate with Russia, with many leaders putting forward EU Council President Costa as a candidate, whilst the 27 member states stress that, ‘until there is a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, Russia’s participation in international sporting and cultural events should not be normalised’, as stated in the leaders’ conclusions. As regards the accession process, the leaders have removed the time-bound reference that committed the Union to opening the subsequent negotiation clusters ‘as soon as possible’. In the final text, the EU-27 merely state that the Council “looks forward to the opening of the other chapters, in line with the merit-based approach”, thereby putting the brakes on pressure to accelerate Kyiv’s European integration process. Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar claimed credit for the outcome. “On my initiative, the clause referring to the acceleration of accession was removed from the text at the last minute. It wasn’t easy,” he wrote on X.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has issued an ultimatum to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, giving him one week to dismantle the relay stations used to guide drone attacks. Zelensky claimed that devices are operating on Belarusian territory which help guide Russian drones towards targets in Ukraine, and called on Minsk to remove them. Otherwise, he warned, Ukraine itself will take action.

“When Mr Lukashenko says he does not want to be drawn into the war, he should be honest, at least with his own people, because it is not he who might be drawn into the war – it is his entire country that could be drawn in, dragged into it by Russia. From the very first days of this war, children and adults have been killed: missiles have come from Belarus, from his country. And so he even rang up and apologised, saying he had no control over it, that Russia was operating on his territory. And, of course, I don’t believe it, but he has already said so,” Zelenskyy stated at a joint press conference with the President of Honduras, Nasry Asfura, in Kyiv today.