EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the 27-nation bloc remained committed to helping Ukraine defeat a “brutal and
inhumane” Russia.
His pledge at a meeting with member foreign ministers in Kyiv came after similar vows by US President Joe Biden and UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps.
Mr Borrell said the EU had proposed an aid package worth £4.3billion for Ukraine’s armed forces. Bloc members would train 40,000 soldiers, provide “special training” for fighter pilots and deepen ties between EU and Ukrainian defence companies.
Mr Borrell said: “I don’t see any member state faltering. “Maybe it’s not being seen like this for everybody around the world, but for us, Europeans, allow me to repeat it: it’s an existential threat.
And that’s why we have to continue supporting you and discussing with our American allies and friends for them to continue supporting you.”
He was speaking after a series of rows between Ukraine and Poland and the election of a pro-Moscow government in Slovakia.
Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said he was confident the two countries would continue to support the fight against Russia’s invasion.
The EU has already announced more than £60billion of military and civilian assistance for Ukraine, due to arrive over the next few years.
Meanwhile, reports from Moscow suggest Vladimir Putin is poised to announce he is seeking another six-year term as Russian president – after more than two decades in the top job already.
The Kremlin tyrant will be 71 on Saturday and first came to the presidency on the last day of 1999 when Boris Yeltsin quit.
He changed the law some years ago to allow him to keep standing and rigs election results anyway. If he completes another full new term, he would be 77 – still much younger than US president Joe Biden who will be in his mid-80s if he gets to the end of another four-year term in the White House.
The Russian election will take place in March, barring a declaration of martial law. The charismatic opposition leader Alexei Navalny, 47, will be prevented from standing.
He is serving 30 years in a penal colony on trumped-up charges after surviving a Novichok poisoning attempt in 2020.
