European Council’s president discusses Ukraine with Putin over phone

By Agnes Szucs

BRUSSELS (AA) – European Council President Charles Michel discussed the war in Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the phone on Friday.

“(I) firmly reiterated the EU’s position: support for Ukraine and her sovereignty, condemnation and sanctions for Russia’s aggression,” Michel said of their conversation on Twitter.

He said he has “strongly urged for immediate humanitarian access and safe passage from Mariupol and other besieged cities all the more on the occasion of Orthodox Easter.”

Michel also stressed the EU’s “unity, principles and values are inviolable.”

According to an EU official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the leaders made a “substantive call” in which Michel “reiterated the EU’s position in a blunt and direct manner.”

Michel stressed “the unacceptability of Russia’s war,” which is a “willful aggression and breach of international law,” the EU official said.

With the aim to “penetrate the information vacuum that may exist around” Putin, Michel also shared his own reading about “Russia’s miscalculations and losses.”

According to the EU source, Michel also asked Putin to engage directly with his Ukrainian counterpart at the request of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

On Wednesday, Michel paid a visit to Kyiv and met with Zelenskyy.

Michel and Putin also discussed the latest developments in the South Caucasus, and Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s willingness “to move rapidly towards a peace agreement,” the EU official said.

The EU has allocated €1.5 billion (approximately $1.6 billion) in military support to Ukrainians and adopted five packages of sanctions since the beginning of the war on Feb. 24.

Individuals targeted by the bloc’s restrictive measures included Russian President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, several oligarchs, and military officers.

The EU has also banned the import of coal and export of luxury goods to Russia, and excluded Russian and Belarusian banks from the SWIFT international banking system.