The EU’s top diplomats, including Poland’s Zbigniew Rau, talked about the bloc-wide procurement of ammunition for Ukraine during a meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on Monday, Britain’s The Guardian newspaper reported.
Before the get-together, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, told reporters: “It is the most urgent issue. If we fail on that, the result of the war is in danger.”
Borrell said the EU needed to ensure that Ukraine had enough ammunition to continue its fight against the Russian assault, adding that "the advance payments scheme" was “a vital medium-term solution,” but ammunition should be delivered from national stocks now, according to The Guardian.
Putin to deliver State of the Union address
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to deliver his State of the Union address on Tuesday, the Reuters news agency reported.
In a speech to members of both houses of parliament, military commanders and soldiers nearly a year after his invasion of Ukraine, Putin will update Russia's political and military elite on the state of what he calls his "special military operation" in Ukraine, according to Reuters.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state television: "At such a crucial and very complicated juncture in our development, our lives, everyone is waiting for a message in the hope of hearing an assessment of what is happening, an assessment of the special military operation."
Putin will also provide his analysis of the international situation and set out his vision of Russia's development after the West slapped wide-ranging sanctions on Moscow over Ukraine, according to officials.
Putin's address comes as US President Joe Biden arrived in Warsaw for talks with his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda and other leaders of NATO’s eastern-flank countries.
Biden, who made a surprise visit to Ukraine on Monday, is expected to deliver a major speech in the Polish capital on how the United States has helped rally world support for Ukraine and on America's support for NATO’s eastern edge, news outlets reported.
China 'will work' with other countries for 'lasting peace' in Ukraine: top diplomat
Meanwhile, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi has said his country is ready to cooperate with other countries to secure a ceasefire and lasting peace in Ukraine, the US broadcaster CNN reported on Tuesday morning.
During a meeting with Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó in Budapest on Monday, Wang Yi said: "China will work with all the peace-loving countries, including Hungary, to make efforts to achieve an early ceasefire and lasting peace."
Wang, recently appointed as Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s top foreign policy aide, is scheduled to visit Russia later this week, according to officials.
Neither Russia nor China said whether Wang would meet with Putin, but on Monday the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said "we do not exclude a meeting" between Wang and Putin, CNN reported.
Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang said on Monday that Beijing was "deeply worried" about the conflict in Ukraine "spiraling out of control," according to CNN.
His statement came after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned at the weekend “about the implications and consequences” if China stepped up its support for Russia’s war effort, news outlets reported.
Tuesday is day 363 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: Reuters, The Guardian, CNN