BRUSSELS — European Union leaders on Thursday called for even greater efforts to help meet Ukraine’s pressing military needs, and expressed support for the country’s quest to join their ranks, but they made little headway with new sanctions against Russia.
At a summit in Brussels, the leaders said it was important to deliver more “air defense and anti-drone systems, and large-caliber ammunition, to help Ukraine, as it exercises its inherent right to self-defense, to protect its citizens and territory against Russia’s intensified daily attacks.”
They also underlined the need to help support Ukraine’s defense industry, which can make weapons and ammunition more quickly and cheaply than its European counterparts. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took part in the meeting via videolink.
Russian forces have made slow gains at some points on the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, but it has been costly in terms of troop casualties and damaged equipment. The outnumbered Ukrainian army has relied heavily on drones to keep the Russians back.
Months of U.S.-led international efforts to stop the more than three years of war have failed. As hostilities have ground on, the two sides have continued to swap prisoners of war.
The leaders said the bloc “remains steadfast in its support for Ukraine’s path towards EU membership.” That message comes a day after NATO leaders refrained from putting a reference to Ukraine’s hopes of joining the military organization in their summit statement, due in large part to U.S. resistance.
The EU is working on yet another raft of sanctions against Russia, but the leaders made little headway. A key aim is to make further progress in blocking Russia’s “shadow fleet” of oil tankers and their operators from earning more revenue for Moscow’s war effort.
The EU has slapped several rounds of sanctions on Russia since President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. More than 2,400 officials and entities – usually government agencies, banks and organizations – have been hit.
The statement on Ukraine was agreed by 26 of the 27 member countries. Hungary objected, as it has often done. At a NATO summit on Wednesday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that “NATO has no business in Ukraine. Ukraine is not a member of NATO, neither Russia. My job is to keep it as it is.”
The leaders also heard from Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on ongoing trade talks with the U.S. aimed at warding off President Donald Trump’s threat of new tariffs, or import taxes, on European goods coming into the US.
Von der Leyen said at a post-summit news conference that she and Trump had agreed at the Group of Seven summit “to spe