European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the European Union will take part in this week's talks in Abu Dhabi alongside its partners, according to Sky TG24. In a message posted on social media, she said she had spoken by phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the eve of a trip to the Black Sea region. The two discussed ongoing peace efforts and the Abu Dhabi meetings, she said.
Von der Leyen said security threats in the Black Sea are growing, attacks are increasing and innocent lives have been lost. She said she would meet leaders in Romania and Bulgaria to discuss the situation on the ground and how Europe can strengthen its response.
Why it matters
The confirmation places the EU directly inside a diplomatic track that has so far been described mainly through US and Ukrainian channels. It also ties Brussels to a process unfolding far from Europe's own institutions, at a moment when von der Leyen says conditions in the Black Sea are worsening.
The announcement came as European officials worked on several fronts at once: closing a funding gap for Kyiv, debating security guarantees, and responding to what G7 foreign ministers in Paris were told is a rise in hybrid attacks against Europe. Sky TG24 reported that the two-day G7 meeting opened in the French capital with conflicts and hybrid warfare on the agenda, with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani attending.
Fighting continues as talks approach
The diplomatic signals came alongside continued strikes. According to Sky TG24, the number of wounded from a Russian drone attack on Kremenchuk in Ukraine's Poltava region rose to seven. The raid damaged an apartment building, which caught fire, and a drone also struck a hotel.
In the Kharkiv region, Russian forces hit the centre of Balakliya overnight, injuring three people and damaging residential buildings and a cultural institution, Sky TG24 reported.
On the Russian side, the governor of the Leningrad region, Aleksandr Drozdenko, said a woman died in a Ukrainian drone attack, according to Sky TG24. He said debris from a drone fell on the roof of the building where she lived on the top floor in the town of Vsevolozhsk. In the Kirishi district, a drone struck the Kinef petrochemical plant and started a fire, and heating facilities in the same town were damaged, the broadcaster reported.
Trump predicts a quick end and a changed map
US President Donald Trump said he gets along with both Vladimir Putin and Zelensky and predicted the war would end soon, according to Sky TG24. He said he is the only reason it will stop, and repeated that deep hostility exists between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders. Trump also said that when the war ends, Ukraine's territorial shape will be somewhat different.
Money, guarantees and warnings from Moscow
At a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels, European Commissioner for the Economy Valdis Dombrovskis said the EU aims to provide an additional 45 billion euros in financing for Ukraine, Sky TG24 reported. He said Kyiv's funding shortfall turned out larger than expected at about 70 billion euros, and that the EU intends to cover roughly two-thirds of it. Options are still being worked out and will be presented to member states, he said.
Lithuania's finance minister, Taurimas Valys, said Ukraine needs the strongest possible guarantees so that the scenario of Georgia 18 years ago is not repeated, when, in his words, the necessary assurances were not given. He said Vilnius wants an agreement by the end of this year, during Ireland's presidency of the EU, and that if that fails, Lithuania would push for it during its own presidency, which begins on 1 January 2027. He noted that Lithuania is among the NATO and EU countries that spend the highest share of GDP on defence, and called for maximum defence resources in the next long-term EU budget.
Russian Security Council secretary Sergei Shoigu said Europe's militarisation is continuing, with military spending rising and exercises that simulate an offensive eastward, according to remarks carried by Tass and cited by Sky TG24. He said NATO military infrastructure is being modernised and expanded in Poland and the Baltic states, that reconnaissance is conducted on Russian and Belarusian territory, and that provocations occur regularly along border areas. His comments came on the day Poland began exercises involving the military arm of the "coalition of the willing," Sky TG24 reported.
What to watch
Attention now turns to who represents the EU in Abu Dhabi, what the talks produce, and whether the funding and guarantee discussions in Brussels move from options to commitments before the Irish presidency ends.
