LONDON

The leaders of Visegrad Group (V4) and the UK on Tuesday condemned "Russia's aggression" against Ukraine.  

In a joint statement following a mini summit, the premiers of the five countries -- Hungary's Viktor Orban, Poland's Mateusz Morawiecki, the Czech Republic's Petr Fiala, Slovakia's Eduard Heger, and the UK's Boris Johnson -- called Russia's war on Ukraine a "brutal, unprovoked and premeditated attack against a sovereign, peaceful democratic state.

Prime Ministers of the 🇭🇺🇵🇱🇨🇿🇸🇰 participate at the V4+United Kingdom Summit, hosted by 🇬🇧PM @BorisJohnson at Lancaster House in #London.

Leaders discuss European #security, the war in #Ukraine and joint responses, energy, as well as #CyberSecurity#RechargingEurope #Partnership pic.twitter.com/7gnycSR365

— V4 PRESIDENCY (@V4_PRES) March 8, 2022

"The actions of Russia, and those who enable them, represent an egregious violation of international law and the UN Charter that undermines European security and stability," said the statement after the meeting held in London.

"Together we offer our full support to the government and people of Ukraine as they stand up for the sovereignty of their country," the leaders added.

Underlining their commitment to the "principle that, as a free and democratic country, Ukraine has the right to determine its own future," the leaders said they would "continue as Allies to coordinate our response to Russia through the most punitive sanctions and measures, including referral to the ICC (International Criminal Court)."

"We stand together in offering support to the growing numbers of refugees, mostly women, children and the elderly, fleeing the bombardment of civilian areas."

They discussed the latest situation in the war and collaboration on cyber security, agreeing to "work together via further policy dialogues and a joint commitment to strengthen our collective cyber resilience, coordinate approaches on cyber governance, and respond to and deter malicious cyber activities, including the spread of disinformation.” 

"We also discussed the subject of reducing our dependence on fossil fuels from Russia, as part of improving our collective energy security," the statement added. 

It further said the V4 and UK "are bound by deep historic ties and our shared values of democracy, rule of law, human rights, and the preservation of peace in Europe."

"We have today resolved to further deepen and strengthen these bonds, as a significant contribution to European peace and security and to work together to protect NATO Allies."