EU foreign policy chief Josef Borrell assured Ukraine that the war-torn country had Europe’s “unwavering” support, while Kyiv announced during the EU official’s surprise visit that it was organizing a meeting with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
It was the first visit by a top EU official to Ukraine since Trump’s November 5 victory, which has led to uncertainty in Kyiv about the West’s continued commitment to supporting Ukraine as it tries to fend off invading Russian forces.
Borrell’s surprise visit also came as Russia continues to heavily target Ukraine with drone and missile strikes and as Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow was open to hearing Trump’s proposals on ending the war Russia launched nearly 1,000 days ago. Trump has claimed he could end the war even before he takes office on January 20.
“The clear purpose of this visit is to express European Union support to Ukraine. This support remains unwavering,” Borrell told journalists in Kyiv. “This support is absolutely needed for you to continue defending yourself against Russia aggression.”
Earlier Borrell, who is set to leave office next month, wrote on X that “the EU’s support for Ukraine has been my personal priority throughout my mandate and will remain at the top of the EU’s agenda.”
Those comments came hours after another deadly attack on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, this time an apartment building in the Black Sea port city of Odesa. Meanwhile, Ukraine claimed it had struck with drones a Russian munitions plant in Tula.
Trump’s election victory has raised concerns in Kyiv, which depends heavily on U.S. and EU support in the face of Russia’s ongoing invasion.
Trump has suggested Kyiv should agree to cede some territory to Moscow in return for peace, a condition Ukrainian President Zelenskiy has rejected.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha told reporters on November 9 that Ukraine is ready to work with the Trump administration.
“Remember that President Zelenskiy was one of the first world leaders…to greet President Trump,” he said, referring to Zelenskiy’s phone call with Trump on November 6 . “It was a sincere conversation, an exchange of thoughts regarding further cooperation.”
Sybiha confirmed alongside Borrell that the Ukrainian government was organizing a meeting between Zelenskiy and Trump. The two last met in September when the Ukrainian president traveled to the United States to present his “victory plan” against Russia.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov said in an interview with the Russian state news agency Interfax prior to Borrell’s arrival in Kyiv that Moscow and Washington were “exchanging signals” on Ukraine through “closed channels.”
He did not say whether the exchanges were with outgoing President Joe Biden’s administration or with Trump or members of his incoming administration.
Ryabkov said Moscow was prepared to listen to Trump’s proposals regarding ending the war against Ukraine as long as they were “ideas on how to move forward in the area of settlement, and not in the area of further pumping the Kyiv regime with all kinds of aid.”
A report by the British daily the Telegraph this week suggested that Trump could propose freezing the current front line, which runs through significant swaths of territory in eastern Ukraine, setting up a buffer zone between Russian and Ukrainian forces.
In exchange, the newspaper reported based on sources close to Trump, Ukraine would agree not to join NATO for 20 years and Washington would provide Kyiv with a large amount of weapons to deter Russia from resuming the war.
On November 9, a long-time Republican strategist who worked on Trump’s campaign told the BBC that the incoming administration would be asking Zelenskiy for a “realistic vision for peace.”
According to the strategist, Bryan Lanza, that vision would not include restoring territory occupied by Russia in eastern Ukraine, nor Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, which Russia invaded and illegally annexed in 2014.
“If President Zelenskiy comes to the table and says, well we can only have peace if we have Crimea, he shows to us that he’s not serious. Crimea is gone,” Lanza said.
A spokesperson from the incoming Trump administration later said that Lanza did not speak for Trump and that the president-elect’s transition team is still drafting policies that Trump might adopt in his second term in office.
“Nobody knows exactly what the new administration is going to do,” Borrell told an AFP journalist accompanying him on his trip to Kyiv, noting that Biden still has two months left in office. “But we Europeans have to use this opportunity in order to build a stronger and united Europe, and one of the manifestations of being united and being stronger and able to act is our role in supporting Ukraine.”
Borrell said it was up to EU countries to decide “when and how to increase” their support if needed. However, he added that at a meeting of EU leaders in Budapest on November 8 “most of the member states were insisting on the same line, [to] continue supporting Ukraine.”
Ukrainian troops are fatigued and stretched as Russian invading forces make gradual gains in the east. Meanwhile, Russian drone and missile attacks on civilian infrastructure continue.
Russian drones struck an apartment building in Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa late on November 8, triggering a large fire.
The public broadcaster Suspilne and other media outlets posted video on social media showing cars and buildings ablaze and thick smoke billowing skyward.
One person was killed and 13 injured, including children, in the attack, the Odesa Regional Prosecutor’s Office said on November 9.
A further 32 Russian drones were shot down over 10 Ukrainian regions, while 18 were “lost,” according to Ukraine’s air force, likely having been electronically jammed.
Experts say systematic or widespread bombardment of housing, civilian objects, and infrastructure are strictly prohibited by international humanitarian law, criminal law, and human rights law. Russia regularly denies targeting Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure.
Meanwhile, a source in Ukraine’s SBU Security Service told RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service on November 9 that drones had struck the Aleksinsky chemical plant in the Tula region about 200 kilometers south of Moscow.
The plant produces gunpowder, ammunition, and weapons. The targeting of the plant was part of a strategy to target factories that support Moscow’s war against Ukraine, the source said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said earlier that 50 Ukrainian drones were destroyed over Russian regions overnight. The governor of the Tula region said a house there had been damaged by drone debris. He made no mention of the reported strike on the plant.
