EU scrambles to send weapons to Ukraine’s outgunned forces

EU leaders grapple with arming Ukraine against Russia, debating funding sources and boosting defense industry at summit.

European Union leaders grappled at a summit meeting on Thursday with how to get more weapons to Ukraine’s outgunned forces while also re-arming their own countries in the face of Russia’s emboldened President Vladimir Putin.

Over two years into Moscow’s war against its neighbour, Kyiv’s troops are struggling to hold back the Russian army as Western deliveries of ammunition have faltered.

Mr. Putin meanwhile has tightened his iron grip over his country by winning a new six-year term at elections after opposition was crushed.

“On Ukraine, we need to continue and certainly accelerate our support,” Belgium Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said at the start of the meeting. “The necessity today is ammunition.”

As a $60 billion package remains stalled in Washington, the European Union’s 27 leaders debated a plan to spend profits from 200 billion euros in frozen Russian central bank assets on weapons for Ukraine.

The proposal could unlock some three billion euros a year for Kyiv, but leaders were not expected to give the final go-ahead on Thursday.

That would come on top of more than 33 billion euros that the EU says it has provided towards arming Ukraine since the Kremlin invaded in February 2022.