The top diplomat of the European Union is visiting the frontline of Ukraine's war with Moscow backed separatists amid intensifying diplomatic activity in response to Russia's buildup of troops on the country's border.
Josep Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief, began a two-day trip to Ukraine on Tuesday, before US-Russia talks in Geneva on 10 January and Nato-Russia talks on 12 January. Borrell is meeting Ukraine's foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba during a trip intended to show solidarity with Kyiv, who aspires to join Nato and the EU.
After Vladimir Putin set out security demands that Nato immediately rejected last month, tensions raged, including a veto on Ukraine entering the military alliance and a ban on troops and weapons along its eastern flank. The EU and the US accused Russia of stoking a crisis by massing tens of thousands of troops along its border with Ukraine.
Russian and US officials are to hold talks on 10 January in Geneva, where the US President, Joe Biden, and Putin met last year in an effort to defuse tensions. Two days later, western countries will meet Russia in the Nato-Russian Council. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe will continue its talks on January 13 through the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a body that includes the US, its Nato allies, Russia and former Soviet states.
The EU is trying not to be sidelined. Borrell told Die Welt last week that we do not want to be spectators who are not involved and over whose heads decisions are made, and that is also the view of the US secretary of state Antony Blinken, whom he had spoken to before Christmas.
Borrell, who has been pushing for more EU military cooperation, said that Europe had to be involved in the talks. It is about us. Two parties, the US and Russia, or Nato and Russia, simply can't negotiate about this, even if Moscow imagines it that way. We are not in the postwar period. There are some European states that are not Nato allies. There must be no Yalta 2, he said, referring to the second world war meeting of all allied powers that accepted Soviet dominion of eastern Europe.
Since 2014, more than 14,000 people have been killed in Ukraine's still-smouldering conflict with Russian-backed separatists.
Vadym Prystaiko, Ukraine's ambassador to London, called for western countries to impose preemptive sanctions against Russia to deter an attack, contrary to the preference for reactive action. He suggested measures that can be really painful for Russia, such as switching off its access to the Swift international payments system.
He said on BBC Radio 4 s Today programme: "What Ukrainians fear most is that a big deal is baked somewhere behind our backs. Western leaders should understand that Ukrainians have their own agenda," he said. The first item on this agenda is survival, in the way we see it, to be close to western democracy. Non-Nato member Finland has been forced to restate its right to choose its security policy because of tensions. In a new year message, Finland's president, Sauli Niinist, said his country retained the right to join Nato, a point reiterated by the prime minister, Sanna Marin. She said Finland retains the option of Nato membership. Russia s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said last month that if Finland and Sweden joined Nato this would have serious military and political consequences, which would require an adequate response from Russia s part. Russian foreign ministers will hold a special meeting on Friday to discuss Russia's military build up and broader security issues, officials said.