Name: EU defense ministers meet to discuss military support for Kyiv | DW News
Uploaded: 2025-12-01T16:50:25.000Z
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Now, while negotiations to end the war gather pace, Ukrainians are still being killed on a daily basis.

Many still oppose giving in to Russia's demands.

Adverbs of degree

Our special correspondent Maria Muller, who we just heard from, and

her team met with Kyiv residents who survived a missile strike.

7:00am we get a call from emergency services.

A missile hit an apartment building in Kyiv's Darnitsky district.

Fire crews are fighting the flames, tearing through homes people were sleeping in.

Just minutes ago, about 100 meters away on this street, a man was walking past when the missile, intercepted by Ukrainian air defenses, struck.

This is where the long range cruise missile, as we were told, hit the ground.

You can still see some parts smoking there.

And this is where it bounced off and hit the apartment building in the back, where it caused fire in several apartments.

They're taking it away for further inspection.

Elia was asleep in his apartment when the explosion shattered his window.

I saw flames right in front of me, flying fragments.

Jana tells us she and her mother live on the ninth floor and barely made it out in time.

My mother is 75 years old and could barely hold on.

If they had taken another minute or two, that would have been it.

Like others here, she's worried about a neighbour she hasn't been able to find.

The fire was literally creeping up on him and very scary.

Straight into the smoke that burns our lungs.

Still a lot of smoke, so it's really hard to breathe.

This was the living room, the kitchen, everything is completely destroyed.

They extinguished the fire just a few minutes ago.

I'm already an old person and I want to spend my remaining years in retirement peacefully.

The next door neighbor, Mykola, has come to check his home.

It too is filled with smoke, but at least it isn't damaged.

Usually the shelling starts between 3 and 5am they deprived me of my joy.

He's been following the news from far off places where others make decisions about his life.

People here won't surrender because to whom and where?

Victoria still can't grasp what happened.

Even though she sees this on the news every day, she says it's hard to believe it struck her own home.

Honestly, because of the shock, I don't feel anything right now.

And even though the killing and destruction has entered its fourth year, giving up is simply not an option for people here.

I believe we must negotiate until all of Ukraine's conditions are met so that all the lives that were lost in this war are not in vain.

Conditions shouldn't be dictated by Russia.

This reflects the sentiment among many Ukrainians.

If they surrender now, all those sacrifices would have been for nothing.

Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy has met with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron in Paris to shore up European support.

Macron's office has said the leaders will discuss what it called the conditions of a just and durable peace.

Meanwhile, European Union defence ministers have gathered in Brussels to discuss military support for Kyiv.

Also on the agenda is European defence readiness in the face of increasing airspace violations and drone sightings.

Today we meet with the defence ministers of the European Union, and we have.

All right, let's bring in our DW correspondents, Terry Schultz in Brussels and Lisa Louis in Paris.

Europeans under pressure again to find a way to be relevant in the peace process, it seems.

Europeans have once again found themselves completely sidelined in discussions about the future of Ukraine when it comes to negotiating with Russia.

Those talks, as you mentioned, in the United States now US envoys going to Moscow.

So while the agenda here today is officially about the Europeans discussing their support for Ukraine and their own preparedness for potential Russian aggression in the future.

Of course, here as ministers arrived, so many of the questions were about these negotiations with Russia and with Ukraine, asking whether the Europeans felt that the Americans were taking their concerns into account.

I asked the Dutch Defense Minister, Reuben Brecklemanns directly when he said that they were coordinating with the Americans, whether he felt that European concerns were being taken seriously by the United States.

And he simply said, all I can say is that we're coordinating.

So I don't think Europeans feel that they do, that they do have a lot of influence on this process.

Lisa, to you in Paris this is Zelensky's second visit within two weeks with the aim to move negotiations forward.

Remind us, what role does France play here?

Well, Emma Macron has been at the forefront of a European show of support.

And despite I, you know, although I agree with Terry that the leverage that Europe has is somehow limited, still, the Europeans are trying to show that they stand united with Ukraine.

Ukraine that has long since turned into Europe's front line in this war, especially as a number of European countries have been facing so called hybrid attacks, airspace violations, incidents with drones, but

also also cyber attacks over the past few months and years.

And in reaction to that, a number of countries have also been gearing up on their military service, their defense industry.

A dozen European countries now have some form of military service in place.

France last week reinstalled a so called voluntary military service aimed at gearing up its defence force and its reserve military reserve by up to tens of thousands of people over the coming years.

You raised the specter of France having a bit of a limited leverage here, Lisa.

France, though, wants a central role in delivering security guarantees to Ukraine.

Well, absolutely, they're still trying to have some influence in the talks that are largely happening between the US and Moscow and obviously also between Ukraine.

We understand that the plan is that is now on the table has at least somehow been watered down in the sense that initially it said that there should be no NATO troops stationed ever in Ukraine.

And now it seems to be saying that there should be no Western troops permanently stationed in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, as you said, France has been part of the so called coalition of the willing that has come up with a plan to send about tens of thousands of soldiers to Ukraine that would be stationed there, not on the front line, but