EU foreign policy chief says fighter jets could be given to Ukraine

The measures include closing the bloc’s airspace to Russian planes and banning state-owned Russian media.

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen (below) said that it was a “watershed moment” in the conflict.

The announcement came as global support for Ukraine intensified in response to ongoing attacks following Russia’s invasion of the country last week.

“The European Union steps up once more its support for Ukraine and the sanctions against the aggressor that is Putin’s Russia,” said Von der Leyen said. “For the first time ever, the European Union will finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and other equipment to a country that is under attack.”

The EU will also ban some pro-Kremlin media outlets, she said.

Meanwhile, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said a military aid package worth €450 million (£376m) could include supplying fighter jets for the Ukrainian air force to use – after a request made by the country’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba.

He told reporters: "[Foreign] minister Kuleba has been asking us that they need the kind of fighter jets that the Ukrainian army is able to operate. And we know what kind of planes, and some member states have these kind of planes.

A number of Eastern European countries operate the Soviet-era jets also in use by Ukraine's air force.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany is committing €100 billion (£84bn) to a special fund for its armed forces, raising its defence spending above 2% of GDP.

“It’s clear we need to invest significantly more in the security of our country, in order to protect our freedom and our democracy,” said Scholz told a special session of the Bundestag in Berlin.

The move is a significant one for Germany, which has come under criticism from the United States and other Nato allies for not investing adequately in its defence budget.

Scholz’s announcement is the latest in a series of major shifts in German defence and security policy this weekend in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

On Saturday, Germany announced that it would be sending weapons and other supplies directly to Ukraine, which is fighting to stop Russia invading its capital city, Kyiv.

Yesterday Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered Russian nuclear forces to be put on high alert in response to what he called “aggressive statements” by leading Nato powers.

The move was a dramatic escalation of East-West tensions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The order to put Russia’s nuclear weapons in an increased state of readiness for launch raised fears that the crisis could boil over into nuclear warfare, whether by design or miscalculation.

The fast-moving developments came as Russian troops drew closer to Kyiv, a city of almost three million, street fighting broke out in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, and strategic ports in the country’s south came under pressure from the invading forces. Ukrainian defenders put up stiff resistance that appeared to slow the invasion.

Putin, in giving the nuclear alert directive, cited not only statements by Nato members but the hard-hitting financial sanctions imposed by the West against Russia, including the Russian leader himself.

Speaking at a meeting with his top officials, Putin told his defence minister and the chief of the military’s General Staff to put nuclear forces in a “special regime of combat duty”.

“Western countries aren’t only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere, but top officials from leading Nato members made aggressive statements regarding our country,” the Russian president said in televised comments.

US defence officials would not disclose their nuclear posture, but said the military is prepared at all times to defend its homeland and allies.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Putin is resorting to a pattern he used in the weeks before launching the invasion, “which is to manufacture threats that don’t exist in order to justify further aggression”.

She told ABC’s This Week that Russia has not been under threat from Nato or Ukraine. “And we’re going to stand up,” Psaki said, adding: “We have the ability to defend ourselves, but we also need to call out what we’re seeing here.”

Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg told CNN, in reaction to Putin’s decision to put Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert: “This is dangerous rhetoric. This is a behaviour which is irresponsible.”

The practical meaning of Putin’s order was not immediately clear. Russia and the United States typically have land-based and submarine-based nuclear forces on alert and prepared for combat at all times, but nuclear-capable bombers and other aircraft are not.

If Putin is raising the nuclear combat readiness of his bombers, or if he is ordering more ballistic missile submarines to sea, then the US might feel compelled to respond, said Hans Kristensen, a nuclear analyst at the Federation of American Scientists.

That would mark a worrying escalation, he said.

Max Bergmann, a former US State Department official, called Putin’s talk predictable but dangerous sabre-rattling.