Volodymyr Zelenskiy told reporters “with allies like this we will win this war” after the prime ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia made a perilous train journey to Kyiv to offer their support.
In a press conference after the meeting Czech prime minister Petr Fiala told Ukrainians “Europe stands with you”.
“The main goal of our visit and the main message of our mission is to say to our Ukrainian friends that they are not alone,” he said.
The leader of Poland’s ruling party said an international peacekeeping mission should be sent to operate in Ukraine.
“I think that it is necessary to have a peace mission - Nato, possibly some wider international structure - but a mission that will be able to defend itself, which will operate on Ukrainian territory,” Jaroslaw Kaczynski said during the conference, which was broadcast on Polish television.
“It will be a mission that will strive for peace, to give humanitarian aid, but at the same time it will also be protected by appropriate forces, armed forces,” he said.
The comments followed an extraordinary meeting with the three EU leaders in a capital which is close to being encircled by Russian forces. They are the first western visitors to Kyiv since the war began two weeks ago.
In footage of the meeting posted on social media, Zelenskiy was heard briefing the EU leaders on the latest military and humanitarian situation and the negotiations with Russia.
“They are shelling everywhere,” Zelenskiy is heard telling them. “Not only Kyiv but also the western areas.”
He also informed the Czech, Polish and Slovenian prime ministers, Fiala, Mateusz Morawiecki and Janez Janša, that three Chechen brigades had been identified among the Russian forces.
Zelenskiy expressed gratitude for their visit, calling it a “powerful testimony of support”.
On arrival in Kyiv, after a three-hour journey, a photograph of the three leaders and Kaczyński, who had accompanied them, was published of them studying a map of Ukraine in a wood-panelled room on a train.
Morawiecki tweeted: “It is here, in war-torn Kyiv, that history is being made. It is here, that freedom fights against the world of tyranny. It is here that the future of us all hangs in the balance. EU supports Ukraine, which can count on the help of its friends – we brought this message to Kyiv today.”
Fiala tweeted: “The aim of the visit is to express the European Union’s unequivocal support for Ukraine and its freedom and independence.
“At the same time, we will present a broad package of support for Ukraine and its citizens during the visit. The international community has also been informed of this visit by international organisations, including the United Nations.”
In statements from their respective capitals ahead of the meeting with Zelenskiy, it was said that they would be offering their support to Ukraine’s president as representatives of the other 24 EU heads of state and government.
Janša tweeted: “Europe must guarantee Ukraine’s independence and ensure that it is ready to help in Ukraine’s reconstruction.”
The visit came as the emergency services in Kyiv said at least five further people had been killed due to shelling in the capital, including on a 15-storey apartment building shortly before dawn on Tuesday.
A downtown subway station that had been used as a bomb shelter was also damaged. City authorities tweeted an image of its blown-out facade.
Kyiv has been spared the worst of the fighting since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February but the Russian military has been gradually encircling the capital.
The Polish government said the visit by the three EU leaders to Ukraine and its capital was made in agreement with the presidents of the European Commission and Council, Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel.
The leaders were in Kyiv, the statement had said, as “representatives of the European Council”.
“The purpose of the visit is to confirm the unequivocal support of the entire European Union for the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine and to present a broad package of support for the Ukrainian state and society,” the Polish government’s statement said.
But EU officials in Brussels said there was some nervousness about the visit and diplomats for some capitals said they had not been notified until minutes before the trip was announced.
The meeting came as MPs from across the continent voted to expel Russia from the Council of Europe, the continent’s leading human rights organisation, over the invasion of Ukraine in a further sign of the Kremlin’s estrangement from the western democratic order.
The vote has huge symbolic value, although it became something of a formality, after Russia announced earlier on Tuesday that it was quitting, effectively jumping before it was pushed.
MPs from the Council of Europe’s 46 other member countries voted for a resolution that said: “In the common European home, there is no place for an aggressor.”
The EU member states also formally agreed on a fourth sanctions package on Tuesday morning, including an asset freeze and travel ban on the Chelsea football club owner, Roman Abramovich.
He is described in the EU’s legal text as “a Russian oligarch who has long and close ties to Vladimir Putin”.
“He has had privileged access to the president, and has maintained very good relations with him,” the text adds. “This connection with the Russian leader helped him to maintain his considerable wealth.
“He is a major shareholder of the steel group Evraz, which is one of Russia’s largest taxpayers.”
