Top EU official pledges support on visit to Ukraine
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited Kiev to celebrate Ukraine’s annual Statehood Day, pledging continued military and financial support for the country’s independence as it resists Russia’s four-year full-scale occupation.
Ukraine’s sovereignty has been under threat since Russian forces invaded Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014 and Moscow’s illegal annexation of the peninsula, followed by an all-out invasion eight years later in February 2022.
Statehood Day, which celebrates the country’s self-determination, is a public holiday in Ukraine.
The war has killed thousands of soldiers and civilians, forced millions of people to flee their homes, reduced Ukrainian cities to rubble and raised fears that the conflict could escalate into open conflict between Russia and NATO, whose member states support Kiev.
There is no peace agreement in sight.
Senior officials from Southeast European countries also visited Kiev on Wednesday for a periodic meeting focused on the Black Sea and regional security.
The meeting, held in 2025 in the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa, reaffirmed the countries’ support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy recently received further pledges of support, including from the group of seven leading industrialized countries and the Coalition of Voluntary Countries.
Von der Leyen, the top official of the European Union, said that her visit to the capital of Ukraine was her 11th visit during wartime.
Europe is closely following Russia’s broader intentions on the continent and has provided diplomatic support as well as billions of euros to Ukraine.
Von der Leyen said she would announce new steps to integrate the European and Ukrainian defense industries and provide new aid to prepare Ukrainian air defenses for the winter, when Russia often tries to disable the force.
His visit comes as Western officials and analysts say Ukraine’s increasingly frequent and accurate drone and missile strikes are hitting high-profile targets deep inside Russia, severely disrupting the Russian military’s supply lines and causing civilian fuel shortages.
“This is a special moment,” von der Leyen said of her visit on social media.
“Ukraine has gained strong military momentum. The situation is turning.”
Meanwhile, Serbia’s Moscow-friendly president Aleksandar Vucic was attending the Southeastern Europe Summit in Kiev.
Serbia, which is almost entirely dependent on Russia for energy supplies, has refused to join the sanctions the West imposed on Moscow after the invasion, although it officially supports Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
Russian airstrikes killed at least eight civilians and injured 11 others, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday.
Russian forces dropped six powerful glide bombs targeting infrastructure mostly in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, killing three people and wounding seven, regional military administration chief Oleh Hryhorov said.
Three people were killed and three others were injured in the Russian attack on Odessa, according to Serhii Lysak, head of the city’s military administration.
Additionally, Viacheslav Chaus said that two people were killed and the 18-year-old head of the regional military administration was seriously injured in Russian drone strikes in the Chernihiv region in northern Ukraine.
In Moscow, the Russian defense ministry said its air defenses intercepted 93 Ukrainian drones overnight over various regions of Russia, as well as over Crimea, the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.
