Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has told EU leaders that Russia’s spring offensive in Kharkiv showed that international pressure on the Kremlin was “not enough”, as he signed a military agreement with the bloc.
Vladimir Putin had tried to “expand the war” in May with a new offensive in eastern Ukraine, Zelenskiy said on Thursday, referring to relentless attacks on the Kharkiv region.
“Thanks to the bravery of our people and the decisions of you, of our partners, we stopped this Russian offensive. But this new Russian offensive proved that the existing pressure on Russia for the war is not enough,” he said.
Referring to EU promises for military support and ammunition, Zelenskiy added: “The fulfilment of every promise is important, not only in terms of protecting lives but also to destroy the Russian illusion that they will achieve something by war.”
The Ukrainian president met the EU’s 27 leaders in Brussels to sign a security pact, two days after his country began formal membership talks to join the bloc, a historic step that was unthinkable before Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
He said the EU-Ukraine security agreement would “enshrine the commitment of all 27 member states to provide Ukraine with extensive support, regardless of any internal institutional changes”.
The EU is in the process of appointing new leaders, but bigger changes could come at ballot boxes in EU member states. In France, the far-right National Rally party, which opposes sending long-range weapons to Ukraine, is leading the polls as two-round parliamentary elections start on Sunday.
Zelenskiy told AFP he had faith that France would “continue to support Ukraine regardless of the political situation”.
The agreement signed on Thursday lays out the EU’s commitment to help Ukraine in nine areas of security and defence policy, including arms deliveries, military training, defence industry cooperation and demining, according to a draft seen by Reuters.
Zelenskiy spoke of air defence capabilities and stressed the need to protect Kharkiv and other cities from Russian guided bombs. “Our long-range strikes and modern air defence are the key to stopping this terror,” he said.
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, on Thursday welcomed the chance to further discuss western plans to use proceeds from Russian frozen assets for arms and other aid to Ukraine with Zelenskiy.
Slovakia’s president, Peter Pellegrini, said he had a “productive good-neighbourly debate” with Zelenskiy in which he assured “my Ukrainian counterpart that Slovakia wishes for a soon and just peace for Ukraine”. Slovakia’s populist government has raised concerns in Europe over its rhetoric opposing military aid to Ukraine.
Zelenskiy thanked EU countries for taking part in a recent peace summit in Switzerland. Nine more countries had since signed a declaration defending Ukraine’s territorial integrity, he said, without naming the new signatories.
He said Ukraine and its allies were organising groups to work on specific action plans “to bring the end of the war reliably, honestly and for a long time”.
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Separately, Poland and the Baltic states urged the EU to strengthen defences along the border with Belarus and Russia to “address the dire and urgent need to secure the EU from military and hybrid threats”.
In a letter to the EU leaders Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, the four governments said: “Russia’s determination to continue the invasion of its neighbour and to ramp up confrontation with the west is only growing.”
The EU was facing “unprecedented range of hybrid attacks perpetrated by Russia and its proxies”, the letter said, listing intimidation, sabotage, disinformation, cyber-attacks and the “instrumentalisation of migrants”, referring to actions to help asylum seekers and other people on the move to cross the border into EU territory.
EU leaders will pledge to “invest substantially more and better together” on defence, as part of a set of goals for the next five years ahead of the start of a new term for the European parliament and the European Commission, according to a paper seen by the Guardian.
But an idea from the French president, Emmanuel Macron, to raise money for common defence through joint borrowing faces opposition from Germany and frugally minded countries such as the Netherlands.
Such plans are at a very early stage, but are likely to emerge as flashpoints next year when talks intensify on the EU’s future budget.
The EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, said: “The European Union [has] been underinvesting in defence and now we have to recover the time we have lost.”