EU Bans Accession Candidates from Attending 9 May Parade in Moscow

The European Union has given a clear instruction to EU candidate states not to attend the 9 May parade in Moscow and not to visit Russia, Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže told reporters on the sidelines of the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Luxembourg on 14 April.

The Gaze reports on this with reference to European Pravda.

Braže said that during a working dinner with representatives of the Western Balkans on Sunday, 13 April, the European side gave them a clear instruction not to participate in the celebrations in Moscow to mark 9 May.

‘Yesterday we had a busy evening with a dinner with our Western Balkan partners... There were many discussions on values, coordination of common foreign and security policy, including sanctions. Including very clear instructions from EU member states for candidates not to participate in the 9 May parade in Moscow, not to make such trips, as this is not in line with EU values,’ Braže said.

According to her, there will be ‘a very practical discussion about money, about military support, about the EU's own capacity (to support Ukraine militarily - Ed.)’.

Russia's shocking attack on Sumy on 13 April shows that ‘Ukraine needs more air defence systems,’ the Latvian minister said.

As The Gaze reported earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Kyiv was ready to buy 10 Patriot air defence systems from the US for $15 billion, and that European partners were ready to help finance this initiative.

At a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg on 14 April, EU foreign ministers are discussing security guarantees for Ukraine, including the initiatives of the ‘coalition of the willing’ to deploy a monitoring mission to Ukraine, as well as the preparation of the 17th package of sanctions against Russia and other means of putting pressure on it.