The European Union has pledged continued support for Ukraine as the country marks its Independence Day on Monday, while threatening Russia with further sanctions over its ongoing invasion.<\/p>\n
European Council President Ant\u00f3nio Costa is expected in Kiev on Monday to take part in celebrations marking the day.<\/p>\n
Costa said since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, the EU and its member states have pledged hundreds of billions of euros in political, financial, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support.<\/p>\n
“We will continue to provide as much support as necessary, for as long as necessary – during the war, in peace negotiations and in reconstruction,” Costa said.<\/p>\n
The EU’s “vision extends beyond the war,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Ukraine’s future in the European Union is the best guarantee of security and long-term democratic stability – for Ukraine and for Europe as a whole.”<\/p>\n
Costa also said EU sanctions on Russia were having an impact.<\/p>\n
“We will intensify the pressure until Russia ends the killing, demonstrates a genuine commitment to peace, and moves from the battlefield to the negotiating table.”<\/p>\n
Ukraine’s Independence Day commemorates the declaration of independence from the Soviet Union adopted on August 24, 1991.<\/p>\n
A number of world leaders are expected in Kiev on Monday, including British Prime Minister Andy Burnham.<\/p>\n
A video conference of the so-called Coalition of the Willing, a group of countries supporting Ukraine against Russia, is also planned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Union has pledged continued support for Ukraine as the country marks its Independence Day on Monday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1165801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[11783,316476,2000,109624,299,5187,42649,1699,92831,8875,64711,657],"class_list":["post-1165800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-antonio-costa","tag-diplomatic-support","tag-eu","tag-eu-sanctions-on-russia","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-council","tag-european-union","tag-independence-day","tag-kiev","tag-president-volodymyr-zelensky","tag-ukraine"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1165800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1165800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1165800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1165801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1165800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1165800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1165800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}