EU foreign ministers meet in Luxembourg on Ukraine, Russia and the Middle East

EU foreign ministers met in Luxembourg on Monday for a Foreign Affairs Council focused on the war in Ukraine, pressure on Russia and the situation in the Middle East.

The meeting was chaired by EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas. According to the European External Action Service, ministers also held an informal exchange by videoconference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.

The Council’s agenda had been set out in advance in an official advisory, which said the ministers would discuss Ukraine and the Middle East. National statements from member states including Ireland and Latvia also confirmed that Ukraine, Russia and the Middle East were central topics.

AP reported from Luxembourg that ministers were also grappling with divisions inside the bloc over how far to go in pressing Israel. The meeting came as EU governments continued to debate how to balance support for Ukraine with wider security and diplomatic tensions beyond Europe.

Kallas said after the meeting that ministers had heard directly from the Ukrainian side and discussed ongoing support for Kyiv. The official materials also pointed to continued attention on Russia and hybrid threats.

No formal new sanctions package or Ukraine financing decision was included in the official reporting available at publication time. The meeting nevertheless signaled that the EU’s foreign policy agenda remains dominated by the war in Ukraine and by disagreement over the Middle East.

The Foreign Affairs Council is one of the EU’s regular ministerial formats, but this session carried added weight because it brought together the bloc’s top diplomats as pressure built on multiple fronts at once.