Emmanuel Macron, the French president, promised on Tuesday that Paris would support Ukraine in the “long term”. He has warned citizens that rising inflation and food prices are “the cost of freedom”.
Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, pledged an additional €500 billion in weapons for Ukraine, to be delivered in 2023.
However, senior EU officials fear a “tipping point” could occur in the autumn or early winter that will reverse domestic opinion against aid to Ukraine.
Italy is holding elections in September that are likely to bring to power a right-wing coalition that includes parties historically sympathetic to Moscow.
Some EU nations were said to be considering asking for sanctions on Russia to be eased to ease pressure on the eurozone economy ahead of a meeting of foreign and defense ministers in Prague next week .
Speaking ahead of his country’s independence day, which coincides with the six-month anniversary of the invasion, Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, warned Western allies not to cut support.
“If the world shows weariness with the war in Ukraine, it will be a great threat to the world,” he said.
July was the first month since the start of the war in which none of the EU’s five largest economies (Germany, France, Italy, Poland and Spain) made new pledges of military support.
Britain joined the group of European nations without making new pledges, but soon after offered to double the number of M270 long-range rocket launchers, the Army’s most advanced missile system, being sent to Kyiv
Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that support for Ukraine must continue until Russia withdraws its forces from Crimea.
“In the face of Putin’s assault, we must continue to give our Ukrainian friends all the military, humanitarian, economic and diplomatic support they need until Russia ends this horrific war and withdraws its forces from all of Ukraine,” the prime minister said to an international conference.