Antonio Costa in Paris at a meeting of leaders to support Ukraine

Prime Minister Antonio Costa will take part this Monday in Paris in a high-level meeting on further support for Ukraine, convened by French President Emmanuel Macron, to mark the second anniversary of the Russian invasion.

Two days after marking two years since Russia invaded Ukraine, and as Ukraine faces the risk of running out of liquidity at the end of March, Emmanuel Macron convened a high-level meeting to “analyze available means to strengthen cooperation.” between partners in support of Ukraine,” the French Presidency said.

The event, which will bring together leaders or representatives of European Union (EU) countries and other countries, will serve to “explore available means to strengthen cooperation between partners who support Ukraine,” Eliseu said.

At the meeting, which will begin in the late afternoon and last until dinner, Portugal will be represented by Prime Minister António Costa.

On Saturday, the second anniversary of the war, Portugal’s prime minister said Portugal will stand alongside the “heroic resistance” of the Ukrainian people and armed forces for as long as necessary until a just and lasting peace is achieved.

In recent days, a number of European governments have insisted on the need to provide military equipment and funding to Ukraine.

This Monday’s meeting comes after EU leaders reached an agreement at an extraordinary European summit in Brussels in early February to revise the Multiannual Financial Framework for 2024-2027 to include a financial buffer of €50 billion (of which €17 billion in grants) for the next four years for Ukraine, mobilized depending on the situation on the ground.

Crucial to this agreement was the failure of Hungary, which for several weeks threatened to veto this financial reserve for Ukraine due to objections to the suspension of funding for community funds in Budapest.

The step back taken by Budapest so that the EU could move forward with this financial reserve was made possible by the inclusion in the conclusions of the European summit of a paragraph that provides for an annual discussion of the mechanism for Ukraine and, “if necessary,” the possibility of the European Commission continuing its consideration within the “ new multi-year financial program.”

Another paragraph was also added stating that “the European Council recalls its conclusions of December 2020 on the application of the conditionality mechanism”, based on which the rule of law is expected to be respected when receiving community funds.

The Russian military offensive into Ukraine, launched on February 24 last year, has plunged Europe into its most serious security crisis since World War II (1939-1945).

Ukraine’s Western allies have supplied weapons to Kyiv and approved successive packages of sanctions against Russian interests in an attempt to reduce Moscow’s ability to finance the war effort.