“We are waiting for a good time to visit Ukraine. We don’t want to go empty-handed,” Lahbib said after the interview. He points out that Belgium has long been working on a series of concrete avenues to support the war-torn country. “We are identifying a number of projects that should help Ukraine get through the winter in the best and safest way possible and to support reconstruction. My trip to Ukraine will be coordinated accordingly.”
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Lahbib and Koeleba also spoke at length about the prosecution and punishment of war crimes in Ukraine and the role of the International Criminal Court. The need for weapons was also discussed. A few days ago it was announced that Belgium will provide another 12 million euros in arms and ammunition. At the end of last month, at Lahbib’s suggestion, the government had already released € 8 million for the purchase of first aid equipment, winter clothing, night vision goggles and medicines for Ukrainian soldiers.
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Lahbib had already met Koeleba for the first time at the end of last month at a European Council of Ministers in Prague. There they talked about the much-discussed trip to Crimea that Lahbib had made before taking up the post of minister as a reporter for RTBF. The peninsula was part of Ukraine, but was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. Prior to the meeting in the Czech Republic, the minister also pointed out in a letter to Koeleba that Crimea is illegally occupied by Russia.
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On Monday in New York, the matter was only briefly discussed at the beginning of the conversation. “The meeting was cordial. He (Kuleba, ed) told me at the beginning that the message was well received by the Ukrainian people. It can be said that the incident, as you call it, if there was a accident, concluded Minister Lahbib.
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