Summit of the Council of Europe to Discuss Peace Formula for Ukraine

On the eve of the Council of Europe Summit in Iceland on May 16 and 17, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, outlined the main underlying themes at the meetings and its follow-on summit in South Korea. Most of the attention will be devoted to Ukraine.

In her statement, she named the key principles surrounding the Ukrainian topic: “The first principle is that we will keep supporting Ukraine, for ‘as long as it takes.’ The second principle is ‘nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine’.”

"‘As long as it takes’ must basically translate into: stable financial support, of course also beyond 2023; an accelerated military support, focused on the ‘now’ and ‘here’; ‘nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine’ means very strong support for President Zelensky’s Peace Formula,” she explained in the statement.

Von der Leyen also added that participants of the Summit will discuss how to hold Russia accountable for the war in Ukraine.

“I will very strongly support the creation of a dedicated tribunal to bring Russia’s crime of aggression to trial. We will also decide on setting up a register of damage in The Hague. It will be a first step, but a very good step, towards Russian compensation,” the president said.

In addition, the agenda of the Summit includes the management of relations with China.

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South Korean military intelligence also suggests that the nuclear-armed North is “producing and providing self-destructible drones” to Russia to further aid Moscow’s fight against Ukraine.

Von der Leyen said: “We will keep calling on China to refrain from supporting Russia's war.”