Russian missile attack targets Kyiv, Ukraine officials say | BBC News

European Union leaders are meeting in Brussels, where the war in Ukraine is high on the agenda. They're examining this question. Could the profits from frozen Russian financial assets be used to pay for weapons for Ukraine? Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky is also expected to take part. The meeting comes as in Kiev at least 13 people are reported to have been injured as the city came under missile attack during the night. According to officials, air defence units were engaged in repelling the attack, reportedly coming from Russia, with missile debris falling in different parts of the city. Mr Zelensky is expected to ask the West to show the political will to deliver air defence systems. Our correspondent Sarah Rainsford has been at the scene in Kiev where the attacks happened. This is the aftermath of yet another Russian missile attack on Ukraine's capital. There were 31 missiles launched overnight, the biggest barrage of missiles that have been launched for some time here. Now Ukraine's air defences managed to shoot all of them down, but when they do that the debris does fall to the ground and it often causes a lot of damage, a lot of destruction. You can see here the crater that was caused at this spot and also the damage to the houses and to the businesses all around here. There are people who have come back to try to salvage whatever they can from their homes, from their flats and also from shops and from medical clinics just in this building here. People are extremely emotional that they've lost absolutely everything. Now we have no idea exactly what Russia was targeting in this particular attack, all we know is that civilians have clearly suffered as a result of it. And this is the result of Vladimir Putin's war that he launched and that he has now vowed to go on fighting, to go on prosecuting after he's just secured another six years in the Kremlin. And for all his aggressive talk, his militaristic talk, for Ukraine this is the result. More casualties, more destruction, more devastation. Sarah Rainsford with that report. So let's return to the subject of the EU summit in Brussels and that key issue of funding for Ukraine. We can look at some figures. Last month all 27 EU leaders agreed on a 50 billion euros aid package for the country, but in Washington a 60 billion dollar or 55 billion euros military aid package for Ukraine is still being delayed. It's been blocked by Republicans in the House of Representatives, caught up in domestic arguments over other policies. But Washington has proved to be Ukraine's most important military backer. It has provided tens of billions of dollars in support since Moscow invaded in February 2022. The amount of military aid given to Ukraine is tracked by the Kiel Institute. This chart shows commitments by governments up until mid-January. It tracks money already provided to Ukraine as well as pledges to send funds in the future. It only shows military aid given by individual governments and not through the EU, which is why the EU isn't listed. You can see Germany has provided almost 18 billion euros in funding or commitments and behind Germany the UK has a commitment of more than 9 billion euros. So continuing with what's happening in Brussels, here's our Europe correspondent Nick Beek, who's been talking to me about what the European leaders hope to achieve. All of the EU leaders are now in. They walked up the red carpet here past all the flags of the various 27 EU countries and have now gone in to start this meeting. It's the first of the year. It's the one they hold every three months or so. As we've been hearing, the priority today really is on delivering more aid to Ukraine, specifically military hardware, to try and boost the Ukrainians' capability on the battlefield against Russia. Olaf Scholz, the German Chancellor, the German leader, I think summed up the mood of a lot of the leaders here, saying that this has to be an absolute priority, delivering more aid to Ukraine. And as part of this, there's this new idea that's been put forward, and that is to take the profits from Russian assets that have been frozen in Europe, to take that money and basically convert it into military hardware, into rockets, all the rest of it, and send it so that Ukraine can use it. And that's something that will be discussed today. I don't think it will be signed off. I think it's quite a way to go. But certainly it's a proposal that the European Commission has come up with, and they think it could be an effective way of boosting Ukraine's capability. And Nick, are there those among the leaders gathered who are not so sure about this particular strategy? Yeah, I mean, I think that's definitely fair to say, Anita. Chiefly, you've got Viktor Orban of Hungary, who we know has remained close to Vladimir Putin over the past two years since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. And we've seen before at meetings like this, how he can hold things up and make them complicated. You might recall that three months ago in December, the historic decision was taken to start talks so that Ukraine could actually join the European Union. There's no such big decision today, but they managed to sort of work round it with Viktor Orban of Hungary. I'm not sure how he's going to react to this proposal that's been put forward. Also, slightly tricky, you've got countries like Malta and Ireland and Austria, traditionally not militarily aligned to anyone. So that makes things quite complicated in terms of taking these profits of frozen Russian assets and converting it into military capability. So I think there's something to watch out for. But also, I think that there's a sort of changing mood in Europe at the moment. Notably, President Macron of France, he's been saying in the past few weeks or so that he can't rule out sending Western troops to Ukraine to take part in the fight against Russia. Now, that initially seemed to alarm some of his allies, but he has been saying this sort of time and again, and he wants to create this, if not an illusion, he wants to be sure that Vladimir Putin thinks that this is something that might be done in the future, while stressing, Mr Macron, that the French are not actively looking to be involved in a military conflict with Russia. Let's stay with this story. Marina Miron is from the War Studies Department of King's College London and is an expert on the war in Ukraine. She said using the frozen assets would be a problematic move by the EU. We're talking about some 10 billion, what they're looking for, perhaps more. It depends on what the decision will be and what part of assets is going to be used. The problem here is, aside from legal issues operating in the legal grey areas, there are precedents to such sort of actions. For instance, during the Gulf War in 1991, however, it was the UN Security Council enforcing these kinds of decisions. The problem is that Europe also risks carrying away other countries which have assets in Europe. So it is problematic in that specific area, but it is also problematic in terms of procurement of weapons, meaning that releasing that money and giving it to Ukraine doesn't necessarily speed up the delivery of weapons. So the crux of the issue is converting the assets into actual military equipment. Typically, how long would that take? Because clearly, from what the Ukrainians are saying, they needed these weapons yesterday, didn't they? Absolutely. And we have to understand that the European defence industry has been dormant. It is not on war footing and it is waiting for European governments to sign long-term contracts. As an example, for instance, an air defence system takes about two years to produce, and it consists of different components coming from different parts of the world. And with a global supply chain crisis, this increases both the cost and the waiting time. So that is a problem. And also another problem are artillery shells. The gunpowder exports from China will no longer be received by the European Union because China has banned those exports, so you have to look for gunpowder elsewhere. The artillery shell prices have quadrupled in recent months. And so the waiting time has also increased because of other conflicts such as that in the Red Sea. So we're seeing here delays in terms of military equipment. We're seeing here is a need also for NATO itself to replenish its own stockpiles, which makes things even more complicated. Where do you allocate that military equipment? Do you first restock your own stockpiles or do you send it to Ukraine? So there are a lot of questions that need to be answered, which unfortunately for Ukraine doesn't look good and it doesn't look like it's going to get the amount it needs any time soon. Marina Miron.