Ukraine is urging European countries not to limit its use of a proposed $163 billion loan based on frozen Russian state assets, arguing that it needs to be able to buy non-European arms, repair war damage from Russian attacks and compensate victims.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said the overnight assault showed that Russia “clearly doesn’t feel enough pressure to stop prolonging the war.”

Russian state television has blamed European countries and Western media for the stalled preparations for a planned summit between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.

As temperatures drop in Ukraine, Russia has stepped up drone attacks on power facilities supplying millions of homes across the country.

Only Russia friendly Hungary and Slovakia, refused to back the bill, which terminates Russian pipeline and liquified natural gas imports.

European democracy and rule of law are at risk, the general says, so Europe must give Ukraine whatever it can to pressure Moscow, even if Trump does not.

During a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg on Monday 20 October, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha briefed his European counterparts on the results of the meeting between the presidents of Ukraine and the United States and called for increased pressure on Russia.

Swedish Defence Minister Pål Jonson believes that the intensification of Russia's hybrid operations requires European states to respond decisively and prepare for a possible war. Source: Jonson in an interview with German outlet RND,