EU’s foreign policy chief visits Ukraine to scale up bloc’s support

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas, European Council President Antonio Costa and Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos arrived in Kyiv on Sunday in what was the first official foreign visit for all of them.

The three were due to hold talks with President Zelenskyy. He has long been asking for more weapons to fight the Russians, but it is not yet clear if the EU will step up their military aid.

With President-elect Donald Trump due to take office in January there are fears within the EU and elsewhere that US military aid to Ukraine will slow down, or even stop altogether.

Trump has criticised the billions of dollars that the Biden administration has poured into Ukraine and has said he could end the war in 24 hours, comments that appear to suggest he would press Ukraine to surrender territory that Russia now occupies.

Since the start of the war in 2022, Russia has been expending huge amounts of weaponry and human life to make small-but-steady territorial gains to the nearly one-fifth of Ukraine it already controls in east and southern Ukraine.