EU to hold special Ukraine summit March 6 – official

BRUSSELS, Belgium — European Union leaders will hold a special summit on the Ukraine war on March 6 as US President Donald Trump makes overtures to Moscow over their heads, a top official announced Sunday.

"We are living a defining moment for Ukraine and European security," said Antonio Costa, who as head of the European Council organises the 27-nation body's meetings, as he announced the date of the "special" summit in a post on X.

Costa said his talks with European leaders had highlighted "a shared commitment to meet those challenges at EU level: strengthening European defence and contributing decisively to peace on our continent and long-term security of Ukraine."

European leaders have been shaken by Trump's overtures to Russia to end the three-year-old invasion and improve relations between the two powers. Many fear a deal to end the war could be made without European or Ukrainian involvement.

French President Emmanuel Macron called two meetings on Ukraine in Paris last week and will go to Washington on Monday for talks with Trump. Keir Starmer, prime minister of non-EU member Britain, will be at the White House later this week.

Trump on Saturday said he was trying to get money back for the billions of dollars sent to support Ukraine's war against Russia.

His comments came as Washington and Kyiv negotiate a mineral resources deal Trump wants as compensation for the wartime aid his predecessor Joe Biden gave Ukraine.

It was the latest twist in a whirlwind first month since he took office, during which he has upended US foreign policy by making diplomatic overtures towards the Kremlin over the heads of Ukraine and Europe.

Trump told delegates at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) near Washington: "I'm trying to get the money back, or secured.

"I want them to give us something for all of the money that we put up. We're asking for rare earth and oil, anything we can get.

"We're going to get our money back because it's just not fair. And we will see, but I think we're pretty close to a deal, and we better be close because that has been a horrible situation."

Hours earlier, a source told AFP that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was "not ready" to sign such a deal, despite growing US pressure.

War of words 

Trump's special envoy Keith Kellogg, who met Zelensky earlier this week, said the Ukrainian president understood signing a deal with the US was "critical"

But the Ukrainian source told AFP that Kyiv needed assurances first.

"In the form in which the draft is now, the president is not ready to accept, we are still trying to make changes and add constructiveness," the source close to the matter said.

Ukraine wants any agreement signed with the US to include security guarantees as it battles Russia's nearly three-year invasion.

The negotiations between the two countries come amid a deepening war of words between Trump and Zelensky that has raised alarm in Kyiv and Europe.

On Wednesday, Trump branded his Ukrainian counterpart a "dictator" and called for him to "move fast" to end the war, a day after Russian and US officials held talks in Saudi Arabia without Kyiv.

The US has proposed a United Nations resolution on the Ukraine conflict that omitted any mention of Kyiv's territory occupied by Russia, diplomatic sources told AFP.

'What kind of partnership is this?' 

Trump has asked for "$500 billion worth" of rare earth minerals to make up for aid given to Kyiv -- a price tag Ukraine has balked at and which is much higher than published US aid figures.

"There are no American obligations in the agreement regarding guarantees or investments, everything about them is very vague, and they want to extract $500 billion from us," the Ukrainian source told AFP of the proposed deal.

"What kind of partnership is this? And why do we have to give $500 billion, there is no answer," the source said, adding that Ukraine had proposed amendments to the draft.

The United States has given Ukraine more than $60 billion in military aid since Russia's invasion, according to official figures -- the largest such contribution among Kyiv's allies but substantially lower than Trump's figures.

The Kiel Institute, a German economic research body, said that from 2022 until the end of 2024, the United States gave a total of 114.2 billion euros ($119.8 billion) in financial, humanitarian and military aid.

Meanwhile, Russia launched 267 drones on Ukraine overnight, a "record" since the February 2022 invasion, the Ukrainian air force said Sunday. 

Air force spokesman Yuriy Ignat called the 267 drones spotted in Ukrainian skies between Saturday and Sunday "a record for a single attack" since the invasion began nearly three years ago.

Among them, 138 were intercepted by air defence while 119 were "lost" without causing damage, he said in a post on Facebook. 

He did not say what happened to the remaining 10 but a separate armed forces statement on Telegram said several regions, Kyiv included, had been "hit".

A Russian missile attack late Saturday left one man dead and five more wounded in the central town of Kryvyi Rig, regional authorities said Sunday.

To try to prevent daily Russian strikes, Ukraine has throughout the conflict sought to disrupt Russian logistics far from the front, notably by directly attacking military bases and industrial sites inside Russia itself.

Twenty Ukrainian drones launched against Russia were "destroyed" overnight, the Russian Defence Ministry said meanwhile in a Sunday report.

Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, with the Kremlin claiming its aim is to protect itself against the threat of NATO expansion.

UK support 'ironclad' 

A senior Ukrainian official told AFP Friday that despite the tensions, talks on a possible agreement were "ongoing". Kellogg praised Zelensky as "courageous" after his visit to Kyiv earlier this week.

The row comes at a critical moment in the conflict. Ukraine marks the third anniversary of Russia's invasion on Monday and Kyiv's forces are slowly ceding ground on the frontline.

Moscow's defence ministry earlier on Saturday claimed the capture of Novolyubivka in the eastern Lugansk region, which is now largely under Russian control.

In a call with Zelensky on Saturday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged the "UK's ironclad support for Ukraine".

Zelensky, in response, praised the United Kingdom for showing "leadership" on the war with Russia.

In London, thousands of people marched in support of Ukraine on Saturday, and polls in the UK suggest strong support for Kyiv.