Brussels: On Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy requested more weapons from his Western allies and argued that "a Ukraine that is winning" its war with Russia should join the European Union because the organization wouldn't be complete without it.

At the conclusion of a 16-hour summit that took place on Friday after Zelenskyy had already left, the EU leaders vowed to support Ukraine in any way necessary but did not provide a specific date for the start of EU membership negotiations, as Zelenskyy had hoped.

The leaders decided to support Ukraine "tirelessly, over the long term... to win the war," according to French President Emmanuel Macron.

Charles Michel, the president of the EU Council, stated that the organization must "cooperate with industry to ensure that we can speed up the level of ammunition production and that they can also fulfill the commitments that are needed."

According to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the goal of a new 10-billion-euro sanctions package under consideration is to deny Russia access to military supplies it needs and cannot obtain elsewhere.

According to her, the sanctions "are targeted on goods that are almost irreplaceable from somewhere else."

Zelensky requested that Slovakia's prime minister, Eduard Heger, give Ukraine its MiG-29 fighter aircraft while he was in Brussels.
Last year, Slovakia grounded its MiG-29 fleet. Although Zelensky didn't request them and they weren't Ukraine's most urgent need, Macron didn't completely rule out sending French fighter jets to the country.

In light of the required training, Macron stated that delivery of warplanes in the upcoming weeks was not possible in any circumstances. After an emotional day at EU headquarters, Zelensky concluded a rare two-day trip outside Ukraine to look for new weapons from the West to fend off the invasion that Moscow has been waging for almost a year. The commitments followed that day's emotional events. He was speaking as Russia was launching a fresh offensive in eastern Ukraine.

Zelensky, who also traveled to the UK and France, was greeted with thunderous applause and cheers at a summit of the 27 leaders of the EU and the European Parliament for his insistence that the struggle with Russia was a struggle for the freedom of all of Europe.

Zelensky based his argument on the shared destiny that Ukraine and the EU face in opposing Russia: "A Ukraine that is winning will be a member of the European Union.Europe will always be, and remain Europe as long as we ... take care of the European way of life,” he said.

Given the enormous task ahead, Zelensky proposed that EU membership negotiations begin later this year. He claimed that doing so would encourage Ukrainian soldiers to defend the nation. “Of course we need it this year,“ he said, then looked at European Council head Charles Michel, and insisted, tongue-in-cheek: “When I say this year, I mean this year.

Roberta Metsola, the president of the European Parliament, stated before Zelenskyy's speech that allies ought to think about "quickly, as a next step, providing long-range systems" and fighter jets to Ukraine. She stated that the response to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine "must be proportional to the threat, and the threat is existential."

Zelenskyy was also assured by Metsola that "we have your back.
We were there for you then, we are here for you now, and we will be here for however long it takes. Putin, according to military analysts, is hoping that Europe will stop backing Ukraine because it is thought that Russia is getting ready to launch a new offensive.

The majority of the eastern Luhansk region is occupied by Russia, but the Kremlin's forces "have regained the initiative in Ukraine and have begun their next major offensive," according to the Institute for the Study of War's most recent assessment. Zelenskyy used the dais of the European Parliament in an attempt to parallel his speech to the British parliament on Wednesday, in which he thanked the country for its unwavering support. The EU provided the same assistance.