The heads of the European Union have arrived in Kyiv where Ukrainians are gathering at memorial events to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion. 

“We are in Kyiv today, because Ukraine is Europe. In this fight for survival, it is not only the destiny of Ukraine that is at stake. It’s Europe’s destiny,” EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on social media with a video of her arriving in the city alongside Antonio Costa, president of the European Council.

Their high-profile meeting in the war-torn country is meant to be a show of solidarity amid a rift between Ukraine and Donald Trump who has undertaken a clear rapprochement with the Kremlin while dismissing Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, as a “dictator.”

Further defying Kyiv and its European allies, Washington plans on Monday to submit to the UN Security Council and General Assembly a draft text that calls for a “swift end” to the conflict but makes no reference to its territorial integrity, in an early test of Mr Trump’s muscular approach to the crisis.