EU summit: Discussions on final day to focus on Ukraine war

Discussions among EU leaders on the final day of the two-day summit in Brussels are set to be dominated by the Ukraine war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to brief officials on Kyiv's military and energy needs ahead of winter. Leaders are also set to discuss collective defense and Russian-linked hybrid attacks. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, says the bloc is preparing more sanctions against Russia. We have to increase the pressure on Russia. We're working now on the 22nd sanctions package. And one thing is absolutely clear. We will not lift any sanctions unless Russia stops the war. And finally, we will discuss the financial and budgetary military needs you have not only for 2026, but also for next year, 2027. OK, let's go to Rosie Bertrand, who's joining us from the EU summit in Brussels. Rosie, so we see Europeans rallying around Zelensky. Can they help bridge that rift between the US and Ukraine? Well, President Zelensky just arrived with those top EU officials behind me here. And we did try to throw a question at him about that rift with Donald Trump. He was pretty tight-lipped for now. But what we have seen is that sense of European leaders, not for the first time, trying to tell Ukraine we have your back at a time when relations with the US are very strained and of course they will try to reach out to the US but they also know that this is a very difficult time this is something Latvia's Prime Minister told us as before we were going on the air he said look the midterms are approaching in the US and that makes the reality different you can see how carefully they choose their words they're trying not to antagonize their ally, Washington, while also trying to support Ukraine. Now, in terms of the actual increase in backing that Ukraine would like, the Europeans do at this stage provide the lion's share of military, of political, of financial support to Ukraine. But it's not really just about the quantity. It's also about the exact nature of that. And that rift that we've seen over the last few days, reports of the U.S. restricting access to its intelligence and intelligence sharing and restricting access to Starlink. Well, those kind of reports and questions, they are much harder for the Europeans to answer because they simply don't yet have alternatives to those kind of, to what the U.S. has to offer there. And that's also a reminder of just how reliant Europe still is on Washington. And of course, difficult colder months coming up for Ukraine, but also in Europe. So can Kiev's allies afford to keep up support? Well, what we'll see here in Brussels today is Zelensky kind of fighting for European countries attention for their money for their resources because of course they are facing a difficult domestic situation as well energy prices here are soaring particularly diesel prices that is something European and EU citizens are asking for answers about and the EU as a whole is trying to negotiate its next long-term budget and that is proving to be a big political battle over where to spend money and how we've seen protests in different European countries over the last few weeks about the cost of living, about housing, about resources in schools. So national governments are also trying to work out where to put their priorities. Of course, those countries which are Ukraine's staunchest backers are trying to send that message. One thing we heard from the Baltic states this morning, those who are traditionally most aligned with Ukraine, saying if Europeans want to be able to drink their coffee and feel safe in the morning, they need to dig deep and give funding to Kyiv. But of course, that's not always an easy argument for governments to make to citizens. All right, Rosa Bertrand, thank you so much.