MEETING The EU and its member states will continue to provide military support to Ukraine the EU’s Foreign Policy chief Josep Borrell has announced at the end of the Foreign Affairs Council. The ministers have approved another 500 million euros for the member countries, which offer military gear and weapons to Ukraine. The event, which brought together EU defence ministers, was also attended by Romania’s Defence Minister Vasile Dincu. High on the agenda was the implementation of the Strategic Compass, (the new common defence policy) with emphasis on increasing the effectiveness of the missions and operations run as part of the Common Defence and Security Policy. Romania’s Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu was also in Brussels on Monday to attend a meeting of his EU counterparts. Among other things the Romanian official presented measures taken by Romania to support Ukraine and said that Bucharest would carry on humanitarian efforts, including by providing assistance to the refugees who had come and continue to come to this country and by operating the international humanitarian hub in Suceava, north-eastern Romania. Aurescu also voiced support for the sixth sanction package against Moscow and underlined the need for a stepped-up international effort for the creation of a corridor, including at sea, for shipping Ukrainian products, mainly cereals to third destinations via Romania.
UKRAINE Roughly 265 Ukrainian soldiers who were holed up in the bunkers and tunnels below Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant have surrendered to the Russian troops and are considered POWs starting Monday, Russia’s Defence Ministry has announced. According to Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the prisoners, some of whom are wounded, would be treated in line with international norms. In turn, Kyiv has said a prisoner swap will be taking place, as soon as the situation of the wounded soldiers is improved. Ukrainian authorities last week said that 1,000 troops, including 600 wounded, according to their commanders, were holed up in the bunkers and tunnels below the Azov steelworks, which became a symbol of the Ukrainian resistance after the Russian invasion of the country. They retreated to Azovstal after more than a month siege of Mariupol, a strategic port at the Sea of Azov, in south-eastern Ukraine, attacked by the Russian troops since the beginning of the invasion and almost entirely destroyed. The city on the coast of the Sea of Azov is strategically situated between the Moscow-annexed Crimea and the mining region of Donbas, where the two pro-Russia republics are and where Russia has stepped up its onslaught.
