On 24 March, the Council of the European Union held an exchange of views with US President Joe Biden on transatlantic cooperation in the context of the Russian military aggression against Ukraine.
The Council demanded that Russia immediately stop its military aggression in Ukraine, war crimes like targeting civilian objects, and guarantee safe passage to civilians trapped in all war zones.
The EU says it will continue to provide coordinated political, financial, material and humanitarian support to Ukraine and to move quickly with further coordinated robust sanctions on Russia and Belarus to effectively thwart Russian abilities to continue the aggression. The European Council called on all countries to align with those sanctions, adding that “any attempts to circumvent sanctions or to aid Russia by other means must be stopped”.
The European Council also recognised all the efforts already made to welcome refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine, and called on all Member States to intensify their efforts, and invited the Commission to take any necessary initiatives to facilitate such efforts.
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Once the Russian onslaught has ceased, the European Union says it is committed to provide support to the Ukrainian government for the immediate reconstruction of a democratic Ukraine. To that end, the European Council invited its international partners to participate. The Council called on the Commission to continue to provide technical assistance in order to help Ukraine implement necessary reforms.
The European Council also called for an international conference to be organised in due time to raise funding under the Ukraine Solidarity Trust Fund.
The Council also called the recent synchronisation of Ukrainian and Moldovan electricity grids with the EU’s grids “a remarkable achievement” and said that the European Union is committed to ensuring continuous and uninterrupted electricity and gas flows to Ukraine.