European leaders meeting in Brussels will be asked to back up their words of support for Ukraine by significantly increasing military aid to Kyiv.
The EU’s 27 leaders met on Thursday to debate how to bolster Ukraine’s position in the war with Russia while increasing the union’s ability to defend itself and become more economically competitive.
EU states have been asked to drastically increase military and financial assistance to Ukraine, due to fears US president Donald Trump may cut US support to Kyiv if efforts to broker a ceasefire in the conflict fail.
A recent EU proposal suggested states go as far as doubling military aid to Ukraine this year, from €20 billion to as much as €40 billion. The 27 national leaders are discussing the proposal at the summit, but few expect them to land on an agreement.
The scale of national contributions required to jointly fund a €40 billion package have caused concern in several EU states, many of whom are already facing budget pressures. The package would be funded by states voluntarily agreeing to contribute.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he did not expect the meeting to agree on how much the bloc would provide to Ukraine this year. “It’s early days on that, there hasn’t been agreement on it, so it could be a lower figure,” he said.
The proposal was tabled by Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, who on Thursday said Europe needed to back up words of support for Ukraine with action.
At the very least EU leaders need to come up with €5 billion in the short term to fund Ukraine’s “imminent” need for more artillery ammunition, she said. “The stronger they are on the battlefield, the stronger they are behind the negotiating table,” she said.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy attended the summit by video link. He briefed leaders on the status of ceasefire talks, following Mr Trump’s phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin earlier this week.
A “just peace” would allow Ukraine to defend its independence and sovereignty, outgoing German chancellor Olaf Scholz said.
That meant Ukraine determining its own future and being able to maintain a “strong army” in peacetime, he said.
Speaking before the meeting, Finland’s prime minister Petteri Orpo described Russia as a “permanent threat” to the European Union.
Lithuanian president Gitanas Nauseda said if the EU failed to quickly “rearm”, it would be the next “victim of Russian aggression”. “Like 87 years ago before the second World War, we are standing in front of a strategic choice, to let the aggressor escalate the violence and fear, or to stop it,” he said.
EU states have rowed in behind plans to spend hundreds of billions of euro more on their own defence in an effort to deter any future Russian attack.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, is to offer countries cheap loans and ease rules limiting national budget deficits, to boost defence spending.
Hungary’s far-right prime minister Viktor Orban was expected to break with the other 26 EU leaders, and again refuse to add his name to a joint statement reaffirming the union’s “unwavering” support for Ukraine. Mr Orban, who is an ally of Mr Trump, has frequently opposed EU efforts to provide more support to Ukraine.
