by Janis Laizans
KYIV (Reuters) – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday the massacre of dozens of residents of the Ukrainian town of Boutcha showed the “cruel face” of the Russian military, and vowed to help Kyiv to defend the “border of Europe”.
Traveling to Ukraine to show her support for Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky, Ursula von der Leyen visited Boutcha as forensic experts began to extract bodies buried in a mass grave in an attempt to establish the origin of their death.
Russia, whose army occupied this city on the outskirts of Kyiv for more than five weeks, before withdrawing from it at the end of March, denies any responsibility in the death of civilians and accuses the Ukrainian authorities of staging.
Speaking to the press in Boutcha, the President of the European Commission, clearly shaken by what she had seen, assured that Brussels would help Ukraine to take the “necessary measures” so that it can join the European Union (EU) – a request repeatedly made by Volodimir Zelensky.
“The unthinkable happened here,” said Ursula von der Leyen. “We saw the cruel face of (Vladimir) Putin’s army. We saw his irresponsibility and his cynicism during the occupation of the city.”
Ukrainians “defend the border of Europe, defend humanity, defend democracy and therefore we support them in this fight”, she added.
Images of civilians killed in Boutcha prompted Western countries to impose new sanctions on Moscow, but just as Ursula von der Leyen and the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, arrived in Kyiv, a missile fired at a station used by the inhabitants of Donbass to flee the fighting in eastern Ukraine left around fifty dead and dozens injured.
MORAL AND FINANCIAL SUPPORT
European leaders undertook this trip to Ukraine to provide moral and financial support to Volodimir Zelensky.
“It usually takes years before the European Council accepts an application, but Ukraine did it in a week or two and I want to move in this direction as quickly as possible,” said Ursula von der Leyen on the train taking her to Kyiv.
“Our goal is to present Ukraine’s candidacy for the Council this summer.”
Six weeks after the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army, the Commission President says she wants Ukraine to “come out of this conflict as a democratic country”, an objective that the EU and other partners will support .
“Ukraine is not an invaded, dominated country. There is still a government (which) receives visitors from abroad and it is possible to travel to Kyiv,” Josep Borrell told reporters. .
Josep Borrell, who said he hoped that the EU would pledge additional support of 500 million euros to Ukraine in the coming days, said that this trip was also an opportunity for the EU to highlight the measures intended to “isolate Russia”, while the Council of the European Union adopted on Friday a fifth set of sanctions, which notably provides for an embargo on Russian coal from August.
(Report by Janis Laizans, written by Elizabeth Piper; French version Myriam Rivet, Nicolas Delame and Tangi Salaün)