The EU has agreed a fresh round of sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine, after complaints from eastern European leaders that some countries were trying to water them down. Brussels also cleared the way for an €18 billion aid package for Ukraine.
The EU on Thursday cleared the way to giving Ukraine €18 billion in aid, diplomats said.
The move followed an impassioned plea from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky not to let internal disputes within the 27-nation bloc stand in the way of backing Kyiv.
"I am asking you very much to ensure that our struggle for peace for Ukraine and for the whole of Europe does not depend on misunderstandings and controversies between some EU member states," Zelensky said in a video address to EU leaders meeting in Brussels.
The desperately-needed funds will help prop up the Ukrainian government next year as its struggles to keep services going in the face of Russia's war.
Sanctions
Meanwhile, Poland and Lithuania initially objected to a new package of sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine, arguing other EU nations had tried to water it down too much.
Eastern european officials said attempts by coastal states including Belgium and the Netherlands to roll back restrictions on Russia selling fertilisers would weaken EU attempts to punish the Kremlin.
Diplomats said a compromise deal, thought to include targeting some 200 individuals, was reached on the sidelines of a leaders summit in Brussels and that the sanctions would be formally confirmed on Friday.
Genocide by hunger
In a parallel development, the European Parliament adopted on Thursday a resolution recognising the famine inflicted by the Soviet regime on Ukraine in 1932-1933, known as the "Holodomor", or "famine" in Ukrainian, as genocide.
In a statement, the Parliament said that "MEPs strongly condemn these acts, which resulted in the deaths of millions of Ukrainians, and call on all countries and organisations that have not yet done so to follow suit and recognise it as genocide".
(with wires)
