Ukraine hosted European leaders to mark three years of all-out war with Russia, while senior US officials stayed away, reports "Reuters".
Among the visitors were European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Antonio Costa and the leaders of Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Norway, Spain and Sweden.
The leaders of Albania, Britain, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Japan, Moldova, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland and Turkey spoke via video link. There was no sign of US representation.
"In this fight for survival, it is not only the fate of Ukraine that is at stake. This is the fate of Europe,” von der Leyen wrote on X.
European leaders rallied around Zelensky in speeches, urging countries on the continent to step up their support for Kiev, while some spoke of the urgent need to increase defense spending.
“We need to get moving… I guess we have a few months to make all the necessary decisions. Otherwise, we will be too late,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said at the summit.
The EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaia Kalas, said that EU foreign ministers were ready to continue military support for Ukraine.
“The ministers broadly supported the new initiative for military assistance to Ukraine. Of course, the details and numbers will be decided and discussed at the extraordinary European summit on March 6. "We need to put Ukraine in a position of strength so that it can say "no" to a bad deal," Interfax-Ukraine quoted Kalas as saying.
Still troubled by Trump's denunciation of President Volodymyr Zelensky as a "dictator" and accused him of starting the war, Kiev said it was in the final stages of reaching an agreement with Washington to grant access to its mineral resources.
The deal is the centerpiece of Kiev's efforts to win U.S. support, but officials have been arguing over its wording amid an extraordinary war of words between Trump and Zelensky, who has said the U.S. leader lives in a "disinformation bubble."
Zelensky refused to sign an earlier draft in which Washington requested $500 billion in natural resources, protesting that Kiev had not received as much U.S. aid and that the draft lacked the security guarantees Ukraine needed.
Beyond the rebukes, U.S. officials began direct talks with Russia in Saudi Arabia last week, excluding Kiev and Europe in a sharp shift in U.S. foreign policy toward the war.
Zelensky, who has called on Europe to create its own army, while urging Washington to be pragmatic, welcomed a host of European and other leaders to a summit in Kiev to mark the start in 2022 of Europe's biggest conflict since World War II.
Washington has made it clear it will not send troops as a security guarantee sought by Kiev if a peace deal emerges, putting the burden on European powers that are likely to struggle without U.S. support.
Thousands of Ukrainian citizens have died and more than six million live as refugees abroad since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion by land, sea and air.
Military casualties have been catastrophic, though they remain closely guarded secrets. Public Western estimates, based on intelligence reports, vary widely, but most say hundreds of thousands have been killed or wounded on each side.