European Union (EU) diplomacy chiefs meet today to approve a new training mission for the Ukrainian army and sanctions on those responsible for cracking down on protests in Iran, after the death of a young Iranian girl.
The meeting – which takes place in Luxembourg at a time of escalating tensions in the war in Ukraine following recent nuclear threats and new serial Russian bombings – is chaired by the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell.
Portugal will be represented by the responsible minister, João Gomes Cravinho.
After Josep Borrell said a few days ago that a potential Russian nuclear attack on Ukraine would trigger a Western “military response” so “powerful” that it would “annihilate” the Russian army, this meeting of European Foreign Affairs ministers is expected to reinforce the support for Ukraine, with the formal adoption of the EU training mission of the Ukrainian army, in addition to the already mobilized military, financial and humanitarian aid.
Proposed last August by the head of European diplomacy at the request of Ukrainian forces, this mission should now have a ‘green light’ for the EU to be able, on European soil, to train around 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers, mainly with basic military training.
According to European sources, the idea is that this training mission for the Ukrainian army will advance in November in countries such as Poland.
Last June, the Portuguese Government expressed Portugal’s availability to train Ukrainian military personnel, and the Minister of Defense, Helena Carreiras, said at the time that an assessment had been made of the type of training that the country could offer.
The military offensive launched on February 24 by Russia in Ukraine caused the flight of millions of people and the death of thousands of civilians, according to the United Nations, which ranks this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since the Second World War (1939). -1945).
This meeting of the heads of EU diplomacy will also discuss the application of sanctions to those responsible in Iran for the death of Mahsa Amini and the way in which the security forces reacted to the demonstrations triggered by the case of the young Iranian Kurd, as already advanced by Josep Borrell in a debate in the European Parliament at the beginning of the month.
Iran has been the scene of protests since Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish girl, died on 16 September after being arrested in Tehran by so-called customs police for allegedly violating a dress code that requires women to wear the ‘hijab’, the traditional Muslim veil that covers the head and shoulders.
According to European sources, among the restrictive measures now planned and that should be approved today are the freezing of assets in the EU and the ban on entry into the community space, which will be applied to about 10 Iranian officials responsible for the repression.
The meeting’s agenda also includes a debate on the war in Ukraine and another on relations between the EU and China, with the EU bloc wanting to become more autonomous vis-à-vis the powers of third countries.
