President Zelensky (R) of Ukraine welcomes PM Johnson to Kyiv./Peter Nicholls/AFP
The Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, is being visited by a string of European leaders this week, showing their political support for President Zelensky amid fears of a Russian invasion.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has arrived in Kyiv, along with Netherlands' Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra.
The European Commission's Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis is also in Ukraine for talks, and the French and German foreign ministers are expected to arrive in Kyiv on Wednesday. Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki met with President Zelensky in Kyiv on Tuesday morning.
While the UK has published a financial sanctions plan to put pressure on the Kremlin and Moscow, the largest EU member states have focused on showing their support for Ukraine.
Germany and France took the lead in 2014, and set up the Normandy Group of foreign ministers, including Russian and Ukrainian representation after the conflict began in Crimea and eastern Ukraine. This conference design is being used again in 2022 to try to calm tensions.
"[Germany's Foreign Minister] Ms Baerbock will travel to Ukraine first on her inaugural visit and then prepare a joint Franco-German visit to the demarcation line," France's Jean-Yves Le Drian said.
"France and Germany will continue their efforts to achieve a return to the implementation of the Minsk Agreements," the French minister added.
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But one key player in the current crisis, Russia's President Vladimir Putin, let the conversation come to him. He hosted Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Moscow today.
The right-wing leader has been unabashedly anti-EU since taking the Hungarian premiership for a second time in 2010. While he did not mention Ukraine by name, Orban told Putin he was on a "peace mission," and "no EU leader wants war or conflict. We are ready for a rational agreement," he said.
Russia's ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzya accused the U.S of provocation./Spencer Platt/AFP via Getty
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State (the title given to the foreign minister) Anthony Blinken is met with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, albeit virtually, and repeated the call for Russian de-escalation.
It comes as Member of the European Parliament and former Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski wrote a blistering piece in the German daily Spiegel.
"Russia now only wants to talk to the United States about the conflict on the European Union's borders," he claimed.
The row spilled over into the UN Security Council in New York on Monday night, with Russia's ambassador accusing the U.S. of "hyping up tensions and rhetoric and provoking escalation."