Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Brussels on Friday with a direct appeal: the European Union should give Ukraine another €70bn next year to pay for its defence against Russia. Speaking to the bloc's leaders, he put a price tag on the years ahead, saying the war would cost €155bn in 2027, and argued the additional sum was a realistic amount.

The starlink ukraine military question hung over the visit: he said Ukraine's access to the satellite internet service, produced by Elon Musk's SpaceX but controlled by the US government, has still not been fully restored - though the funding ask was the business of the day.

The funding request in Brussels

When Zelenskyy walked in for the talks, he was applauded by the heads of state and government of the EU's 27 countries.

That is how Zelenskyy framed the request to the leaders, alongside his warning that the war's cost would reach €155bn in 2027.

Existing EU support and the gap

The EU is already transferring regular payments to Kyiv under a €90bn funding plan agreed last December. That package was designed to cover two-thirds of Ukraine's needs.

• •The remaining third was to come from other international partners, such as the UK, Canada, Norway and Japan.

Belgium's prime minister Bart De Wever predicted before the summit exactly what Zelenskyy would argue. "Thank you for the €90bn, but that money is going to run out because a war is a very costly thing," De Wever said, anticipating the Ukrainian president's message to the room.

Frozen Russian assets back on the table

Fear of a renewed financial crunch has pushed Russia's €210bn in assets frozen inside the EU back into the debate. The EU already uses the profits from those assets to support Ukraine, but last year it decided against touching the funds themselves and instead built the EU-backed €90bn loan.

• •Belgium, which hosts the vast majority of the frozen Russian money, strongly opposes using it, fearing it would carry the financial burden if the plan failed.
• •Zelenskyy offered an alternative in Brussels: "We need something like a special EU-controlled custodian to reduce the risk" of the assets being unfrozen and divided up.
• •The European Commission has so far been reluctant to put forward new variants such as an EU-controlled custodian, worried it would run into the same opposition from Belgium and other sceptical member states.

Sanctions and the failed energy ceasefire

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen told the summit that the EU had backed Donald Trump's energy ceasefire, but Russia had not honoured it. "But we have seen that Russia did not respect it, not a single minute," she said, adding that Moscow had escalated its attacks instead.

Von der Leyen promised a 22nd round of EU sanctions and drew a firm line on any future relief: "We will not lift any sanctions unless Russia stops the war".

The Washington backdrop was less friendly. Hours before the Brussels meeting, Trump called Ukraine's renewed strikes on Russian oil refineries "a disgrace" after the purported energy ceasefire fell apart, and on the Newsmax television channel he accused Zelenskyy of pushing up world oil prices. "All he's doing is making the world oil price higher," Trump said.

Asked about reports that European leaders had urged him to tone down his criticism of Trump, Zelenskyy said he had heard "only support" in the room.