Informal video conference of foreign affairs ministers, 27 February 2022

Main results

EU Foreign Affairs Ministers informally met via video conference, and held a discussion on further measures to be adopted in response to Russia's military aggression against Ukraine.

This is a historical moment because this is the first time since the end of the second world war that a military power invades another sovereign state in violation of international law. Secondly because Europeans have reacted in a way that have surprised a lot of people, starting with the Russians themselves.

Josep Borrell, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy

Ministers gave the political green light to a new set of measures, which are due to cover various strands of action:

• EU support to the Ukrainian armed forces through the European Peace Facility
• further individual and economic sanctions, covering among others the closing of EU airspace to Russian aircrafts, the SWIFT financial messaging system, and the resources of the Russian Central Bank
• diplomatic engagement in order to work towards the international condemnation and isolations of Russia
• measures to support Ukraine and the region
• initiatives to counter disinformation, including the prohibition for state-owned media Russia Today and Sputnik to broadcast in the EU.

These decisions will now need to be finalised through relevant legal acts.

• Urgent assistance to Ukraine: High Representative Josep Borrell convenes extraordinary meeting of EU foreign ministers (European External Action Service)
• EU relations with Ukraine (background information)
• EU restrictive measures in response to the crisis in Ukraine (background information)