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All of the European Union’s foreign ministers on Monday met outside of the bloc’s borders in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv for the first time. “We are here to express our solidarity and support to the Ukrainian people,” the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said, describing the meeting as “historic”. Overnight, US President Joe Biden pressed congressional Republicans to back a bill for more aid to Ukraine after Congress stopped extended funding to the country in a bid to avoid a US federal government shutdown. Read FRANCE 24’s live blog for all the developments on the war in Ukraine. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
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9:06am: EU convenes ‘historic meeting’ of all foreign ministers in Kyiv, Borrell says
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday announced that all of the bloc’s foreign ministers were for the first time meeting beyond its borders, in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
“We are convening a historic meeting of EU Foreign Ministers here in Ukraine, candidate country and future member of the EU. We are here to express our solidarity and support to the Ukrainian people,” Borrell said in a statement on social media.
00:22am: Biden presses Republicans on Ukraine, says ‘brinkmanship has to end’
US President Joe Biden on Sunday pressed congressional Republicans to back a bill to provide more aid to Ukraine, saying he was “sick and tired” of the political brinkmanship that nearly led to a government shutdown.
Biden spoke after Congress passed a stopgap bill on Saturday that extended government funding for more than a month and avoided a shutdown that would have left most of the federal government’s more than 4 million employees without a paycheck and cut a wide range of services.
The bill, which passed with broad Democratic and Republican support, sparked hardline Republican Matt Gaetz to pledge to oust the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy.
The bill, which lasts through Nov. 17, did not include aid for Kyiv. The United States has been a major supporter of Ukraine after Russia invaded it last year, and Biden has sought to rally the world, as well as his own country, to maintain that support.
Key developments from Sunday, October 1:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Ukraine’s troops on the country’s Territorial Defence Forces Day for their “courage and strength”.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s air defence systems shot down 16 out of around 30 drones that Russia launched on Ukraine’s Cherkasy region overnight, Ukrainian Air Forces said on Sunday.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev on Sunday suggested that British soldiers training Ukrainian troops in Ukraine would be legitimate targets for Russian forces, as would German factories producing Taurus missiles should they supply Kyiv.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said during a visit to Kyiv on Sunday that Ukraine needed more military aid and he promised ongoing EU support.
Read yesterday’s live blog to see how the day’s events unfolded.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP, and Reuters)
This story originally appeared on France24
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