European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell announced on Monday that all of the bloc's foreign ministers are meeting for the first time outside its borders, in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.

The meeting comes at a time when Kiev seeks to join the European Union in the future, in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which is now in its twentieth month.

“We are holding a historic meeting of European Union foreign ministers here in Ukraine, the candidate country and next member of the European Union,” Borrell said in a statement on social media. “We are here to express our solidarity and support to the Ukrainian people.”
He added, "Ukraine's future lies within the European Union."

For its part, Kyiv welcomed the meeting.

“This is a historic event because it is the first time that the Foreign Affairs Council meets outside its current borders, outside the borders of the European Union, but within the future borders of the European Union,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told reporters alongside Borrell.

As for French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, she saw the meeting as a message to Moscow that reflects the bloc's determination to stand by Ukraine.

"It is an expression of our firm and permanent support for Ukraine, until it is able to prevail," she told reporters in Kiev. "It is also a message to Russia that it should not rely on the possibility of exhausting us."

In turn, Dutch Foreign Minister Hanke Bruins Sloat stressed that "it is really important that we meet here today to express our solidarity with Ukraine."

In 2014, Ukrainians overthrew the pro-Moscow regime in a popular pro-EU uprising.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pressed to accelerate Kiev's accession to the bloc as a response to the Russian invasion.