EUobserver: EU summit will be "unwavering" on arms for Ukraine

EU leaders will shortly vow to continue arming and financing Ukraine in the face of "unspeakable" Russian "atrocities ... suffering and destruction".

That is the thrust of a draft EU-Ukraine summit statement, dated 24 May and seen by EUobserver.

"The European Union is unwavering in its commitment to help Ukraine exercise its inherent right of self-defence against Russian aggression," it also says.

EU states have so far pumped in €2bn of weapons into Ukraine from a joint fund, and much more in bilateral terms — despite Russian targeting of Western arms convoys and complaints about a "proxy war".

Leaders will also "welcome" any new legal "confiscation measures" of Russian wealth in the EU and exploration of "options aimed at using frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine's reconstruction".

And they will complain that Russian president Vladimir Putin is weaponising food supply by insisting on EU sanctions relief in return for letting Ukraine deliver grain to world markets via its ports.

"The European Council strongly condemns the destruction and illegal appropriation by Russia of agricultural production in Ukraine" and calls for new "land routes, notably to reach the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea and the Adriatic Sea", the draft says.

EU ambassadors are still finessing the declaration before the European Council summit begins on May 30.

But the smooth text masks several ongoing EU disagreements on how to handle Russia.