EU feared to be losing the will to back Ukraine

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Emmanuel Macron, the French president, on Tuesday promised that Paris would support Ukraine for the “long term”. He has warned that rising inflation and food prices are “the cost of freedom”.

Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, pledged an extra €500 million of weaponry for Ukraine, set to be delivered in 2023.

Senior EU officials nevertheless fear a “crunch point” may be hit in autumn or early winter that will turn domestic opinion against further aid to Ukraine.

Italy holds an election in September that is likely to bring to power a Right-wing coalition including parties historically sympathetic to Moscow.

Some EU nations were said to be considering calling for sanctions on Russia to be loosened to ease pressures on the eurozone economy ahead of a meeting of foreign affairs and defense ministers in Prague next week.

Speaking ahead of his country’s independence day, which coincides with the six-month anniversary of the invasion, Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, warning Western allies against cutting support.

“If the world shows fatigue with the war in Ukraine, it will be a big threat to the world,” he said.

July was the first month since the war began in which none of the five largest EU countries – Germany, France, Italy, Poland and Spain – made new pledges of military support.

Britain joined the group of European nations in making no new pledges, but soon afterwards offered to double the number of M270 long-range missile launchers, the Army’s most advanced missile system, being sent to Kyiv.

Boris Johnson on Tuesday said support for Ukraine must continue until Russia withdraws its forces from Crimea.

“In the face of Putin’s assault, we must continue to give our Ukrainian friends all the military, humanitarian, economic and diplomatic support that they need until Russia ends this hideous war and withdraws its forces from the entirety of Ukraine,” the Prime Minister told an international conference.

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