By Jan Strupczewski

BRUSSELS/Reuters – European Union leaders are expected to meet Monday to express continued support for Ukraine in order to thwart Russia’s attack. But the discussions will be overshadowed if they don’t agree to a new package of sanctions.

The leaders of the 27 member nations are expected to meet for two days to talk about how to help Ukraine, four months after Russia invaded.

Reuters has seen draft conclusions from the meeting. They showed that the EU would be supportive of Kyiv’s government but will make no new decisions.

We saw the potential for Europe to stand united after Russia’s aggression on Ukraine. We hope the summit will continue as this, with a look to tomorrow’s summit. It is beginning to collapse and then crumble once more,” Robert Habeck, German Economy Minister said Sunday.

Most tangible is the political support of leaders for a package of EU loans totalling 9 billion euros. A small grant component will cover some of the interest. This allows Ukraine to keep its government running and provide wages for approximately two months.

The decision to make the donation will come later after the European Commission submits a proposal about how the money can be raised.

Even though there have been efforts to reach an agreement on the sixth package of sanctions against Moscow since May’s start, the EU countries cannot agree because the element of embargo on Russian oil purchase is unacceptable to Hungary. It also poses problems for Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

Another element, like disconnecting Russia’s largest Sberbank of the SWIFT messaging network, banning Russian broadcasters in the EU and adding to an existing list of people whose assets and cannot be entered the EU are also held back by the absence agreement on the oil ban.

Draft summit conclusions indicated that EU leaders support the creation an international fund to rebuild Ukraine, but with few details. They also want to examine the possibility of confiscating Russian assets.

Officials said that the precise phraseing was done to make the matter more difficult.

They will promise to speed up work to assist Ukraine in moving its grain to international buyers by rail or truck, as Russia’s navy blocks the normal sea routes.

According to the draft, leaders were open to exploring ways to reduce rising energy costs, such as temporary price caps to ease red tape when rolling out renewable energy sources and to invest in connecting national networks of energy across borders so that they can better assist each other.