By SAM McNEIL
BRUSSELS (AP) — European defense ministers pledged Friday to ramp up support for Ukraine and increase pressure on Russia, a day after a Russian air assault on Kyiv killed 23 people and badly damaged a European diplomatic compound.
Outrage over the attack propelled Europe’s leaders to condemn Russia even before Friday’s meeting and call for tougher measures on Moscow like seizing frozen assets, further sanctions and increasing support for Ukraine’s military and membership in the European Union.
“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.
They also discussed European troops’ deployment in Ukraine to guarantee security and monitor a peace that seems distant as American efforts to broker peace between Ukraine and Russia appear stalled.
Kyiv’s European allies are looking to set up a force that could backstop any peace agreement, and a coalition of 30 countries, including European nations, Japan and Australia, has signed up to support the initiative. Kallas said that in terms of security guarantees for Ukraine, the U.S. is demanding that Europe carry “the lion’s share” of the burden.
Military chiefs are figuring out how that security force might work. The role that the U.S. might play is unclear. Trump has ruled out sending U.S. troops to help defend Ukraine against Russia.
On Thursday, two missiles landed about 50 meters from an EU diplomatic mission in Kyiv, shattering the office’s windows and doors but causing no injuries there. The EU summoned Russia’s envoy in Brussels, Karen Malayan, and told her that damages to the mission “are serious and constitute a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” said Anitta Hipper, an EU foreign policy spokersperson.
The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting on airstrikes against Ukraine on Friday afternoon at the request of Ukraine and five European council members — Britain, France, Slovenia, Denmark and Greece. Two of Ukraine’s top envoys were set to meet Friday with the Trump administration regarding mediation.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt criticized both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after Thursday’s attack on Kyiv.
She said that Trump “was not happy about this news, but he was also not surprised.”
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,” Leavitt said. “The president wants it to end, but the leaders of these two countries … must want it to end as well.”
In Copenhagen, Kallas said defense ministers from across the 27-nation bloc discussed increasing sanctions on Russia, ramping up defense supplies to Ukraine’s army and European contribution to postwar security guarantees, which could include EU training missions into Ukraine once a ceasefire is in place.
At a news conference following the meeting, Kallas said that the ministers had discussed ways to work around Hungary’s refusal to back Ukraine. She said the EU has 6.6 billion euros blocked by Hungary’s veto that could potentially be sent to Ukraine via NATO’s new Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List approved by Trump.
On Thursday, the United States approved a $825 million arms sale to Ukraine that will include extended-range missiles and related equipment to boost its defensive capabilities.
Lithuania’s Defense Minister Dovilė Šakalienė said the attack on Kyiv on Thursday shows 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.
“That is actually one power that we are not using enough yet,” she said. “Over 200 billion of Russian assets would be extremely helpful in both pumping this money in Ukrainian defense industry and buying American weapons.”
Simon Harris, Ireland’s defense minister, said more must be done to force Russia to end the war.
“It’s imperative that those of us in the European Union now consider further sanctions, what more measures can be taken to increase the pressure on Russia to end this brutal and aggressive war on Ukraine and the huge impact that that’s having on civilians,” he said.
European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen began a tour of EU nations bordering Russia or Belarus on Friday, including visits to arms factories and border installations. She met Friday with Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina and toured a drone manufacturer.
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