Scholz wants to speak to Putin
EU foreign ministers give Kiev billions in aid
02/21/2022, 12:31 p.m
It is intended to ensure Ukraine’s stability: the EU is granting another loan to Kiev. Foreign Minister Baerbock is calling on Putin to start new negotiations. “Don’t gamble with human lives,” she urged. Chancellor Scholz wants to call the Russian President today.
The foreign ministers of the EU countries have approved emergency financial aid for Ukraine in the billions. At a meeting in Brussels, they decided the country threatened by Russia another loan to be granted in the amount of 1.2 billion euros. It is to be paid out in two tranches. The proposal for this came from the EU Commission. However, in order for the first tranche to be paid out, Kiev must prove that the government is implementing certain economic reforms.
The assistance was fast-tracked in just 21 days to ensure Ukraine’s economic and financial stability. “The ongoing security threats have already triggered a significant outflow of capital,” the EU said. Due to the increased geopolitical uncertainty, Ukraine is losing access to the international capital markets. According to the EU Commission, the EU and its financial institutions have provided Ukraine with more than 17 billion euros in loans and grants since 2014.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants to call Russia’s President Vladimir Putin again this afternoon. This was announced by government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit. With regard to the conflict in Ukraine, Hebestreit spoke of an “extremely dangerous situation”. The planned talks between Scholz and Putin are closely linked to the international efforts to defuse the conflict over the Russian troop deployment on the Ukrainian border, Hebestreit said.
Appeal from Baerbock
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock urged Putin to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict. The Greens appealed to Putin in Brussels: “Come back to the negotiating table.” However, the Kremlin described the plans for a summit meeting between Putin and US President Joe Biden as “premature”.
Baerbock also called on Putin: “Don’t play with human lives.” She added: “What we have seen in the past 72 hours in terms of attacks and violent clashes on the ground is really worrying.” The ceasefire in eastern Ukraine is broken again and again.
In Brussels, Baerbock and the other EU foreign ministers initially held discussions with the Ukrainian chief diplomat, Dmytro Kuleba. With a view to a possible meeting between Putin and Biden, he emphasized: “We hope that the two presidents will leave the room with an agreement that Russia will withdraw its troops from Ukraine.”
Macron’s office: Biden-Putin meeting
The office of French President Emmanuel Macron had previously announced that Biden and Putin had “in principle” agreed to a summit after telephone calls. According to the Elysee Palace, Biden made it a prerequisite that “Russia does not invade Ukraine”. The summit is to be prepared on Thursday by the foreign ministers of the USA and Russia, Antony Blinken and Sergey Lavrov.
At the same time, Kuleba called on the Europeans to immediately impose “at least some of the sanctions” on Russia. However, the Europeans reject preventive sanctions against Russia. The EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell confirmed in Brussels that the punitive measures were ready and would be imposed “at the right time”. He would then convene an extraordinary meeting of foreign ministers.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen threatened Moscow with tough sanctions on the ARD talk show “Anne Will” on Sunday: “If Vladimir Putin starts a war, we will respond with the most powerful lever we have: economic and financial sanctions, because the economy is Russia’s weak point,” she said. “Financial sanctions would mean that Russia would be practically cut off from international financial markets.”
Von der Leyen left open whether this would include Moscow’s exclusion from the Swift international payment system. The economic sanctions would “affect all goods that Russia urgently needs to modernize and diversify its economy, but which are manufactured by us, where we have global dominance and which Russia cannot replace,” said the EU Commission chief.