Europe assures support for Ukraine. Winter is one of the topics of the summit

One thing is absolutely clear: we will not lift any sanctions until Russia ends this war, von der Leyen told reporters on Friday. Antonio Costa pointed out that it was not the time to think about giving Moscow relief.

Our priority is energy demand. This is point number one. Of course we want to end this war as quickly as possible. We do not see any signals from the Russian side that it is ready to end this war. That's why we need to prepare for winter. It's not just about energy. It's also about air defense and financing. I am grateful to the EU for supporting us, Zelensky said.

Von der Leyen also said that the EU is working on the next, 22nd, package of sanctions against Russia and is "intensively" dealing with Ukraine's path to the EU.

Another year of war, another difficult winter

One of the topics of the ongoing summit is winter aid for Kiev.

As summarized by Reuters, EU leaders are meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Brussels to confirm support for Ukraine at a particularly difficult moment of the war. Russia continues to attack Ukrainian cities with missiles and drones, destroying energy infrastructure. The latest attacks killed three people in Kharkov and approximately 370,000. customers in the Volyn Oblast lost access to electricity. Emergency restrictions on energy supplies were also introduced in Kiev.

Kiev expects help in rebuilding and protecting the energy system, supplies of air defense systems and further financing.

Finance remains a big problem. Ukraine is expected to need billions of dollars to cover military and budget spending, with next year's financial gap expected to be at least $32.6 billion. This amount does not take into account the costs of direct arms supplies from allies, estimated at approximately $40 billion.

The summit is also taking place in the shadow of tensions with the US. Donald Trump criticized Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries, stating that they contribute to the increase in energy prices. However, Kiev rejects suggestions that it should refrain from striking Russian infrastructure used to finance the war. European leaders are to discuss both support for Ukraine and the consequences of rising energy prices for EU countries.