KYIV (Reuters) – Seven Baltic and Nordic foreign ministers travelled to Kyiv on Monday to show support for Ukraine as it struggles with outages caused by Russian air strikes on energy infrastructure.
The visit by the officials from Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden precedes a meeting of NATO military alliance foreign ministers in Bucharest on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“The strongest message from this visit is: Ukraine needs to win this war and therefore that the Western support should be stronger; more heavy weaponry without any political caveats, also including long distance missiles,” Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu told Reuters in an interview.
He called for a stronger package of sanctions on Russia, for Moscow’s greater international isolation and the creation of “an international tribunal on the crime of aggression” by Russia.
Russia unleashed its latest barrage of missile strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure on Wednesday, causing sweeping blackouts across the country.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said: “We… are in Kyiv today in full solidarity with Ukraine. Despite Russia’s bomb rains and barbaric brutality Ukraine will win!”
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal wrote on Twitter that the ministers had “discussed the tightening of sanctions, the reconstruction of energy infrastructure & financial support. Called for support for Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations.”
(Reporting by Tom Balmforth; editing by Timothy Heritage)
