Top EU Diplomat Promises Full Support For Ukraine On Visit To Conflict Frontline

The European Union’s top diplomat has pledged “full support” to Ukraine on a visit to the frontline of the country’s war with Moscow-backed separatists.

- Jennifer Rankin

Josep Borrell is the first EU high representative for foreign policy to have visited the Donbass region since war broke out nearly eight years ago.

“We are here first to reaffirm the European Union’s full support to Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity,” he said. “Any military aggression against Ukraine will have messy consequences and severe costs,” Borrell said, echoing recent declarations of EU leaders.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, who accompanied Borrell on a trip to the Luhansk region, hailed the visit as historic. It was, he said, a “sign of Ukraine-EU unity in the face of elevated Russian threats”.

Borrell visited Stanytsia Luhanska, a village and crossing point on the frontline that has endured years of shelling in the conflict. Tensions have escalated as tens of thousands of Russian troops have massed along the border with Ukraine.