European defence ministers are meeting in Copenhagen to discuss the war in Ukraine, the day after a Russian air assault on Kyiv killed 23 people and badly damaged a European diplomatic compound.
Outrage over the attack propelled the political leaders of Europe’s armed forces to condemn Russia even before Friday’s meeting and call for stronger measures on Moscow such as seizing frozen assets, further sanctions and increasing support for Ukraine’s military and membership in the European Union.
They will also discuss European troops’ deployment in Ukraine to guarantee security and monitor a peace that seems distant as US efforts to broker peace between Ukraine and Russia appear stalled.
“Everybody understands that, considering how [Russian president Vladimir] Putin is mocking the peace efforts, the only thing that works is pressure,” said Kaja Kallas, foreign policy chief for the European Union.
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Two missiles landed about 50m from an EU diplomatic mission in Kyiv, shattering the office’s windows and doors but causing no injuries there. The EU summoned the Russian envoy in Brussels over the attack.
The UN Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting on air strikes against Ukraine on Friday afternoon at the request of Ukraine and the five European council members: the UK, France, Slovenia, Denmark and Greece.
Two of Ukraine’s top envoys were set to meet on Friday with the Trump administration regarding mediation.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt criticised both Mr Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy after the Thursday attack on Kyiv.
She said that Mr Trump “was not happy about this news, but he was also not surprised”.
Ms Leavitt noted that Ukraine has also launched effective assaults on Russia’s oil industry in recent weeks.
“Perhaps both sides of this war are not ready to end it themselves,” Ms Leavitt said. “The president wants it to end, but the leaders of these two countries … must want it to end as well.”
In Copenhagen, Ms Kallas said defence ministers from across the 27-nation bloc would discuss increasing sanctions on Russia, ramping up defence supplies to Ukraine’s army and the European contribution to postwar security guarantees, which could include EU training missions into Ukraine once a ceasefire is in place.
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“We are discussing today how to change the mandate of those missions in order to be ready after any peace agreement is put in place,” said Ms Kallas, who called for harsher sanctions targeting Russia’s economic lifelines.
On Thursday, the United States approved a $825 million (€706 million) arms sale to Ukraine that will include extended-range missiles and related equipment to boost its defensive capabilities.
Lithuania’s defence minister, Dovile Sakaliene, said the attack on Kyiv on Thursday showed that hope now for peace is “naive” and that “all Putin is doing is really stalling, actually cheaply buying time to kill more people and to imitate sort of willingness to maybe stop his own murderous actions”.
She said Europe must deal with Russia more forcefully, like seizing frozen Russian assets.
On Friday, European Commission president Ursula Von der Leyen is beginning a tour of EU nations bordering Russia or Belarus including scheduled visits to arms factories and border installations. She will start in Latvia. – AP
