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EU leaders reaffirm strong military and economic support to Ukraine

BRUSSELS, June 23 (KUNA) -- The European Council (meeting of EU leaders) Thursday firmly reiterated that the European Union will continue to provide strong support for Ukraineآ’s overall economic, military, social and financial resilience, including humanitarian aid.
The EU leaders in their conclusions after the end of the first-day of a 2-day summit in Brussels called on the EU Council of ministers to swiftly work on a further increase of military support to Ukraine.
They condemned Russiaآ’s indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, and urged Russia to immediately and unconditionally withdraw all its troops and military equipment from Ukraine.
The EU leaders called on all countries to align with EU sanctions against Russia, in particular EU candidate countries.
The European Council noted that the European Commission will soon present a proposal to grant Ukraine new exceptional macro-financial assistance of up to 9 billion euro (USD 9.4 billion) in 2022.
It said that Russia, by weaponising food in its war against Ukraine, is solely responsible for the global food security crisis it has provoked and expressed supports the efforts on the Solidarity Lanes to facilitate food exports from Ukraine via different land routes and EU ports.
The European Council decided to grant the status of candidate country to Ukraine and to Moldova and recognised the European perspective of Georgia.
The EU leaders expressed full and unequivocal commitment to the EU membership perspective of the Western Balkans and calls for the acceleration of the accession process.
Moreover, the European Council expressed "deep concern about recent repeated actions and statements by Turkey." "Turkey must respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all EU Member States and said, it "expects Turkey to fully respect international law, to de-escalate tensions in the interest of regional stability in the Eastern Mediterranean, and to promote good neighbourly relations in a sustainable way." (end) nk