EU leaders to discuss frozen Russian assets
- European Union national leaders will discuss a plan to use billions of euros in profits from frozen Russian financial assets to buy arms for Ukraine as they try to bolster Kyiv in its fight against Moscow’s invasion.
- Russia has launched a wave of missile strikes on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, wounding at least 13 people and damaging several buildings, according to local officials.
Moscow, Beijing stand ‘back to back’
The Chinese Ambassador to Russia, Zhang Hanhui, says Moscow and Beijing will continue to stand “back to back,” the state news agency TASS reported.
“On Monday, [Chinese President] Xi Jinping congratulated [Russian President Vladimir] Putin on re-election to the post of the president of Russia. This reflects solid friendship and mutual political trust between the two leaders,” the Chinese envoy told TASS in an interview.
“The countries firmly support each other on issues that affect their key national interests, while back-to-back strategic cooperation is becoming stronger and stronger.”
He added that Russian-Chinese relations had entered “the most favourable period in the entire history” under Putin and Xi’s governance.
Belgian PM welcomes EU proposal on Russian assets
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo welcomed the EU proposal to transfer profits from frozen Russian assets to buy weapons for Ukraine.
“The proposal on the proceeds themselves, I think it’s a sensible way of doing it. I think the idea to allocate it predominantly to the purchase of weapons makes total sense,” De Croo told the Reuters news agency in an interview.
Zelenskyy renews calls for air defences after Kyiv attack
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on Western nations to show the “political will” to help Kyiv after Russia’s latest attack.
“Such terror continues every day and night. It is possible to put an end to it through global unity. When it helps us with air defense systems. Russian terrorists do not have missiles capable of bypassing Patriot and other leading world systems,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.
“This protection is required in Ukraine now. From Kyiv to Kharkiv, Sumy to Kherson, and Odesa to the Donetsk region. This is entirely possible if our partners demonstrate sufficient political will.
“We must prove that terror is always the loser. We must prove to Russia that it will be forced to accept normal free life in Ukraine. We need the support of our partners. And I am grateful to everyone in the world who truly helps,” he added.
US ‘unlikely’ to accept Ukrainian oil price cap proposal, says Lavrov
“The other day, I read that Ukraine was trying to convince the United States to lower the cap price on Russian oil to $30 a barrel,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview. “This goes beyond all bounds.”
“It is significant that the United States is unlikely to go along with Ukraine,” he added, arguing that lowering the cap would seriously impact the global oil market and the US economy.
After Russia sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, the West looked to punish the Russian economy by imposing several waves of sanctions and, in 2022, imposed a $60 a barrel price cap on Russian oil.
Russia launches missile attack on Kyiv
Russia has launched a missile attack on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, injuring at least 13 people and damaging residential buildings and industrial facilities, city officials say.
Serhiy Popko, the head of the military administration, said it was the first significant attack in recent weeks that targeted the city with both ballistic and cruise missiles.
“After a pause of 44 days, the enemy launched another missile attack on Kyiv,” he said. “All emergency services are working on sites. Clearing the consequences of the missile attack is under way.”
He added that the Russian military used strategic bombers and launched some missiles from its territory.
An 11-year-old girl was among two people taken to hospital, city officials said.
EU to discuss using frozen Russian assets for Ukraine
European Union leaders will discuss a plan to use frozen Russian assets to buy arms for Ukraine as they try to bolster Kyiv’s war efforts.
“For decades, Europe has not invested enough in its security and defence,” Charles Michel, president of the European Council of EU leaders, wrote in his invitation letter for the summit.
“Now that we are facing the biggest security threat since the Second World War, it is high time we take radical and concrete steps to be defence-ready and put the EU’s economy on a ‘war footing’.”
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will join the two-day Brussels summit via video link.
Earlier this week, the EU’s Foreign Minister Josep Borrell said he would propose the plan to use the assets as, in recent weeks, EU leaders have voiced increasing alarm about the state of the war, as Ukraine struggles with a lack of ammunition.
