Europe must 'deliver' on promised military aid to Ukraine: EU official

President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola has urged Europe to follow through with the aid it has promised Ukraine and increase support to the war-torn country.

She was in Kiev on Europe Day to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who praised the European efforts but said Russia had used delays to gain momentum on the battlefield.

"We are painfully aware that Ukraine urgently needs more equipment and air-defence systems to defend itself against the aggressor," Metsola said on Thursday.

Ukrainian officials and soldiers have repeatedly warned they lack ammunition to defend themselves against sustained Russian assaults as the war stretches into its third year.

"We Europeans need to deliver, we need to take responsibility, we need to intensify our support," she said.

On Wednesday, EU member states agreed to use billions of euros in profits from frozen Russian central bank assets to arm Ukraine and fund its post-war reconstruction, which Kiev had been pushing for.

Delays in supplies

The EU had also promised to provide Ukraine with one million shells by March 2024, but fell short of that target.

"There were supplies –– and once again, thank God and thank you –– but not in the amount that was voted," Zelenskyy said.

Ukrainian troops would be able to stop Russia's initiative in the east as soon as the aid arrived, he said, while warning that Russia was "taking advantage" of any delay.

He also praised the increase in Ukraine's domestic production of weapons.

Zelenskyy and Metsola held the news conference in Kiev as Russia celebrated its annual Victory Day marking the Soviet Union's defeat of Germany in World War II.

At the end of the conference, air raid sirens sounded.

"This is (Russia's) real attitude to peace. Their real attitude to the fight against Nazism," Zelenskyy said.