© Jeannot Ries
After Monday's visit to Moldova, Luxembourgish FM Xavier Bettel visits Ukraine on Tuesday.
Together with his Belgian counterpart Maxime Prévot and Heleen Bakker, Director-General of the Dutch Foreign Ministry, Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel visited Odessa to commemorate the victims of Russia's war crimes.
The visit began at a park on the Black Sea, where Ukraine honours the soldiers who have fallen at the hands of the Russian invasion. The delegation was received by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.
As Minister Sybiha recounted, the war did not begin on 24 February 2022. Russia's assault started in 2014 with the invasion of Crimea and the Donbass region. Since then, thousands of Ukrainians have lost their lives.
Emotions ran high among those present, with Minister Bettel struggling to find words to express his feelings. He noted the year of birth of one of the fallen soldiers: 2009 – just a young boy who died serving and protecting his country.
Strategically key port
The visit continued to the port of Odessa, one of the main arteries fueling Ukraine's economy. The port's director explained that it has been challenging to keep the port running smoothly, only 80km from the Russian front. Week after week, the port is pummelled by Russian war ships, using ballistic missiles. He continues that port workers have mere seconds to seek cover, and victims are plenty. The infrastructural damage is visible even to the naked eye.
Political talks
The next part of the Odessa visit involved bilateral talks with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, who from the start of the visit emphasised the need to increase pressure on Moscow. Politically as well as through economic sanctions that hurt.
"We stand with Ukraine", Minister Bettel declared. The discussions focused on imminent talks which could prove to be decisive. Ukraine hopes that an end to the war is on the horizon, hopefully by the end of this year.
No Luxembourgish soldiers will be deployed, according to Minister Bettel. However, Luxembourg will supply satellite technology to Ukraine.
Regarding the peace talks, Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot added that Ukraine's borders cannot be touched and no deal will be made behind Ukraine's back. Militarily, Belgium will continue to support Ukraine by training soldiers and Belgium will ship F16-fighter jets to Ukraine. The Netherlands have agreed to finance, among other things, a fully-fledged American aerial warfare system.
The delegation then visited energy-supply infrastructure, a 50 minute drive from Odessa. Infrastructure that is seen as necessary during the war, but is regularly attacked by the Russians.
