EU To Train More Troops For Ukraine As Summit Begins

The EU has pledged to train an extra 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers as part of a raft of announcements at the start of a two-day visit to Kyiv by European leaders.

- Chris Stevenson

"Russia is paying a heavy price as our sanctions are eroding its economy, throwing it back by a generation. We will keep turning up the pressure further," the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, told a joint news conference with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.

Ms Von der Leyen said there would be more military, financial and political aid to come. She also announced the creation of an international centre in The Hague to prosecute crimes of aggression in Ukraine.

"We know the future of our continent is being written here ...democracies against authoritarian regimes," she This is a fight of said.

The EU will now train 30,000 Ukrainian troops this year, while it also promised €25m (£22m) for demining areas recaptured by Ukraine.

Mr Zelensky urged more sanctions against Russia, saying the pace had "slightly slowed" and that Moscow was adapting to them. "The faster and better this task is accomplished, the closer we will be to defeating the aggression of the Russian Federation," he said.