EU diplomats and defense ministers convene in Brussels

Brussels 28.08.2024 This week, High Representative Josep Borrell will chair an informal meeting of EU Foreign Ministers on Thursday 29 August, followed by an informal meeting of EU Defence Ministers on Friday 30 August. The meetings will take place in Brussels, in the Europa Building of the Council of the EU. (Photo: archive) Informal meeting…

Kremlin downplays Kursk failure

Brussels 12.08.2024 The Kremlin decided to declare a counterterrorism operation avoiding a state of war or martial law to downplay the scale of the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk Oblast to prevent domestic consequences of the failure. The move demonstrating that the Kremlin is reluctant to take relevant measures to respond to the Ukraine successful operation…

EU Borrell criticism of Hungarian diplomacy

Brussels 22.07.2024 While entering the Foreign affairs Council meeting the EU top diplomat Josep Borrell said, that there are two main topics related to Ukraine to discuss: how to avoid the complete destruction of the electricity system, when 70% of the power generation capacity in Ukraine has been destroyed, and how approach the winter 2024-25…

EU renews anti-Russian sanctions

Brussels 16.07.2024 Today the Council renewed the EU restrictive measures in view of the Russian Federation’s continuing actions destabilising the situation in Ukraine for a further six months, until 31 January 2025. (Image above: Council meeting, Brussels) These sanctions, first introduced in 2014, were significantly expanded since February 2022 in response to Russia’s unprovoked, unjustified…

NATO Summit: 75 years of Atlanticism

Brussels 12.07.2024 Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg celebrated NATO’s 75th anniversary with US President Joe Biden and all other Allied Heads of State and Government in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday (9-11 July 2024). In a speech at the Mellon Auditorium, where the North Atlantic Treaty was signed in 1949, the Secretary General underlined that NATO is…

Borrell: Ukraine should prevail

Brussels 12.07.2024 The EU top diplomat Josep Borrell made remarks upon arrival to the NATO Summit in Washington D.C., where the allies celebrated NATO’s 75th anniversary with US President Joe Biden and all other Allied Heads of State and Government. “During 75 years [of its existence] NATO has been ensuring peace and protecting the free…

NATO new cyber defense centre

Brussels 11.07.2024 NATO allies agreed to launch a new cybersecurity unit aimed at warning military commanders of emerging hacking threats. The decision was announced during the 75th NATO Summit in Washington D.C. on July 10. (Image above: illustration). The Integrated Cyber Defense Centre’s mandate will include sharing threat intelligence on cyber threats to private infrastructure…

EU: Russia absurd playwright sentence

Brussels 09.07.2024 Russian court sentenced the director Zhenya Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk, to six years in prison for “justifying terrorism” through their award-winning theatre play “Finist, the Brave Falcon”, which actually speaks against terrorism. “This sentence is absurd – as if Dostoyevsky were responsible of a murder by Raskolnikov” reads the statement issued by…

Zelensky admits heavy human losses

Brussels 27.06.2024 At the margins of the EU Summit Zelensky signed three security agreements days after the EU announced it was opening formal membership negotiations with Kyiv. Among them two bilateral with Estonia, and Lithuania, and one general with the EU “as whole”. “For the first time, this agreement will enshrine the commitment of all…

EU: Ukraine on top of diplomatic agenda

Luxembourg 24.06.2024 The ongoing Foreign Affairs Council is going to reflect upon a waste agenda of the international issues. “On the table – first, as always – [is] Ukraine. After the Summit [for Peace in Ukraine] in Switzerland, where a diplomatic track has been opened. And the answer from Putin travelling to North Korea, travelling…