European Commission President speaks out against frozen conflict in Ukraine

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, stated that a stable and just peace, not a frozen conflict, must remain the goal of the war in Ukraine.

Source: European Pravda, citing von der Leyen’s speech at the EU ambassadors’ conference in Brussels on 6 November

Details: Von der Leyen stressed that the war in Ukraine had become a strategic failure for Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, but that this failure would not automatically turn into victory for Ukraine.

Quote: "While the war is becoming protracted, and while we continue to satisfy the basic needs of Ukrainians, we must also focus on the way forward and on what it means to support Ukraine ‘for as long as it takes’."

In this context, von der Leyen presented the three goals the EU must achieve.

"Firstly, a just and lasting peace, not another frozen conflict, remains our goal. Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians," the President of the European Commission stated.

She added that the main way of achieving this is President Zelenskyy’s peace formula, and therefore urged the ambassadors to keep working to garner more and more support for the peace formula from countries all over the world.

"Secondly, Ukraine needs long-term security. We must facilitate a stable military force able to protect Ukraine now and deter Russian aggression in the future so that history does not repeat itself," von der Leyen noted.

This means strengthening Europe’s defence industry: "We must guarantee that no weakness in the industry can prevent us from protecting Europe and providing full-fledged support for Ukraine.

Thirdly, the best way to facilitate Ukraine’s medium- and long-term stability and ensure it flourishes is to make it a member of the EU. To help Ukraine recover, Europe is the answer. To strengthen Ukrainian democracy even more, Europe is the answer. To protect Ukraine from future interventions – once again, Europe is the answer," von der Leyen stressed.

Recently, the NBC News TV-channel reported that officials from the US and the EU had opened discussions with Ukraine on the possibility of peace talks with Russia.

At the same time, President Zelenskyy said nobody is putting pressure on him to make Kyiv negotiate with Russia.

Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's Foreign Minister, stated that the war unleashed by Russia cannot be stopped by sitting down at the negotiating table.

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