Ukraine and several European Union (EU) countries have established the Kyiv Initiative to strengthen their regional cooperation, says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

On Monday, he named neighbours Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Hungary, as well as the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, as participants. He said the door was open to other countries to join the format.

Mr Zelensky described it as “a very promising line of our work within the Euro-Atlantic alignment” but provided few details, saying only that security issues would be the focus of their collaboration.

In his video address, the president also touched on the second annual Crimea Platform, a summit that will be held online on Tuesday and feature speeches by the leaders of Germany, Japan, Canada, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.

In total, more than 50 participants from Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Africa have been announced.

The Crimea Platform, launched last year, is used by Kyiv to mobilise support for the return of the Crimean Peninsula to Ukraine.

The strategically important Black Sea territory was annexed by Russia in 2014 but continues to be part of Ukraine under international law. 

(dpa/NAN)