Air defence, energy, clusters: Zelenskyy reveals what he discussed with EU leaders

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has provided details of his meeting with European Council President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Zelenskyy described the meeting as good.

"Today, we discussed further assistance, first and foremost for our energy and air defence needs. We talked about support for our financial resilience, including for next year, and coordinated our work on the European integration track," he wrote on X.

Zelenskyy said it is important that new negotiating clusters were opened this week.

"We are working to open the remaining two by the end of the year," he added.

Zelenskyy also noted that there are currently no signals from Russia that it is willing to end its war.

"European leadership is needed to ensure that people's lives are sufficiently protected from this Russian terror. We appreciate that everything we agree on is implemented promptly," Zelenskyy wrote.

On Friday 16 October, EU leaders publicly assured the Ukrainian president that sanctions against Russia would under no circumstances be eased.

They also said that Ukraine-EU accession negotiations are expected to be fully launched by the end of the year, when Ukraine and the EU are expected to open the remaining negotiating clusters.