KYIV, Ukraine -- The European Union will unveil its 10th package of sanctions against Russia on Feb. 24 to mark the anniversary of Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a senior official from the bloc said Friday in Kyiv, as Ukrainian forces gird for an expected Russian offensive in the coming weeks.
The sanctions will target technology used by Russia's war machine, among other things, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told a news conference. The sanctions will take aim in particular at components used in the manufacturing of drones, she said, naming Iran as a key supplier of Russia.
The number of Russian troops killed and wounded in Ukraine is approaching 200,000, a stark symbol of how badly President Vladimir Putin's invasion has gone, according to U.S. and other Western officials.
Closing loopholes that the Kremlin uses to circumvent sanctions will also be a priority, according to von der Leyen, who was on her fourth visit to the Ukrainian capital since the war began.
The exact measures in the next EU sanctions package must be agreed upon by the bloc's 27 member countries -- a process that can take weeks.
Top EU officials met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a show of support for the country as it battles to counter the Kremlin's forces and strives to join the EU as well as NATO.
The last such summit was held in Kyiv in October 2021 -- a few months before the war started. The highly symbolic visit is also the first EU political mission of its kind to a country at war.
European officials were adamant about continuing to support Ukraine militarily and economically, but they didn't provide any new details about Ukraine's accession path to the EU.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine's goal "is to start negotiations this year." But the process will likely take years and require the adoption of far-reaching reforms, including a clampdown on endemic corruption as the country receives billions of dollars in aid. Kyiv formally submitted its application last June.
Zelenskyy said progress had been made to further integrate Ukraine economically into the EU across several sectors, including agriculture, industry, energy and customs.
Ukraine's government is keen to get more Western military aid, on top of the tanks pledged last week, as the warring sides are expected to launch new offensives once winter ends. Kyiv has pushed the West to provide fighter jets and long-range missiles.
The U.S announced Friday that it will send longer-range bombs to Ukraine, along with air defense systems and other weapons and ammunition as part of a new $2.17 billion aid package. The rocket-propelled, GPS-guided, ground-launched, small-diameter bombs are fired from HIMARS rocket launchers and glide to targets up to 93 miles away, twice as far as the previously supplied U.S. rockets for HIMARS systems could reach.
Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder noted that the bombs will give the Ukrainian armed forces a longer range capability and enable them to "conduct operations in defense of their country and to take back their sovereign territory."
Asked to comment on the U.S. move, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov pointed to Thursday's statement by Putin, who likened the Russian action in Ukraine to fighting the Nazis in World War II and issued an ominous warning to the West for announcing new weapons shipments.
"Those who hope to defeat Russia on the battlefield apparently fail to understand that a modern war against Russia will be a completely different war for them," Putin said. "We do not send our tanks to their borders, but we have something to respond with, and it is not limited to the use of armour."
France and Italy also agreed Friday to supply Ukraine with a SAMP/T-MAMBA air-defense system, which French officials call the European equivalent of the Patriot system that the U.S. has given Ukraine. The missile battery is slated for delivery this spring.
Kyiv's forces "have a chance" of beating back an expected Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine if supplied with the right Western weapons, Zelenskyy said.
"Our task is not to give them [an] opportunity [for revenge] until our army is strengthened with appropriate weapons. I think we have a chance," Zelenskyy added.
Officials in the eastern Luhansk region said Russian forces have disabled mobile internet connections, stepped up shelling and deployed more troops in preparation for an offensive.
EU assistance for Ukraine has reached almost $55 billion since the fighting started, according to officials from the bloc.
The EU is providing Ukraine with financial and humanitarian aid, and announced it is ramping up its military training mission, from an initial target of pushing 15,000 troops through the schooling to up to 30,000 troops. One focus is to train the crews of tanks that Western countries have offered Ukraine.
MORE CIVILIANS KILLED
The high-level meeting came as a 60-year-old man was killed and six others were wounded Friday when Russian missiles hit central Toretsk, in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, the local prosecutor's office said in a statement on Facebook.
Ukrainian authorities reported Friday that at least six civilians were killed and 20 others were wounded over the previous 24 hours.
Among the dead were two brothers, ages 49 and 42, killed when Russian shelling destroyed an apartment building in the northeastern Kharkiv region, Ukraine's presidential office said. Their 70-year-old father was hospitalized with injuries.
Also, six people were wounded and 18 apartment buildings, two hospitals and a school were damaged Thursday in a Russian attack in the eastern city of Kramatorsk , Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko told Ukrainian TV. Four people died when a Russian missile hit an apartment building in that city on Wednesday.
While the officials caution that casualties are notoriously difficult to estimate, particularly because Russia is believed to routinely undercount its war dead and injured, they say the slaughter from fighting in and around the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut and the town of Soledar has ballooned what was already a heavy toll.
With Moscow desperate for a major battlefield victory and viewing Bakhmut as the key to seizing the entire eastern Donbas area, the Russian military has sent poorly trained recruits and former convicts to the front lines, straight into the path of Ukrainian shelling and machine guns. The result, U.S. officials say, has been hundreds of troops killed or injured a day.
Russia analysts say that the loss of life is unlikely to be a deterrent to Putin's war aims.
Ukraine's casualty figures are also difficult to ascertain, given Kyiv's reluctance to disclose its own wartime losses. But in Bakhmut, hundreds of Ukrainian troops have been wounded and killed daily at times as well, officials said.
Better trained infantry formations are kept in reserve to safeguard them, while lesser prepared troops, such as those in the territorial defense units, are kept on the front line and bear the brunt of shelling.
Gen. Eirik Kristoffersen, Norway's defense chief, said Jan. 22 estimates were that Russia had suffered 180,000 dead and wounded, while Ukraine had 100,000 killed or wounded in action along with 30,000 civilian deaths.
Kristoffersen, in an email to The New York Times through his spokesperson, said there is "much uncertainty regarding these numbers, as no one at the moment are able to give a good overview. They could be both lower or even higher."
Senior U.S. officials said this week they believe the number for Russia is closer to 200,000. That toll, in just 11 months, is eight times higher than American casualties in two decades of war in Afghanistan.
The figures for Ukraine and Russia are estimates based on satellite imagery, communication intercepts, social media and on-the-ground media reports, as well as official reporting from both governments. Establishing precise numbers is extremely difficult, and estimates vary, even within the U.S. government.
The Russian military has been following the Wagner playbook and deliberately using poorly trained troops to draw, and deplete, Ukrainian fire, senior U.S. military and defense officials said.
Kusti Salm, Estonia's deputy defense minister, in a briefing with reporters in Washington last week, said that Russia was better able to stand its losses than Ukraine.
"In this particular area, the Russians have employed around 40,000 to 50,000 inmates or prisoners," Salm said. "They are going up against regular soldiers, people with families, people with regular training, valuable people for the Ukrainian military.
"So the exchange rate is unfair. It's not one to one because for Russia, inmates are expendable. From an operational perspective, this is a very unfair deal for the Ukrainians and a clever tactical move from the Russian side."
Information for this article was contributed by Susie Blann of The Associated Press and by Helene Cooper, Eric Schmitt and Thomas Gibbons-Neff of The News York Times.
Ukrainian State Emergency Service firefighters put out a fire after Russian shelling hit a shopping center in Kherson, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/LIBKOS)
Ukrainian State Emergency Service firefighters put out a fire after Russian shelling hit a shopping center in Kherson, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/LIBKOS)
A stray dog sits near the dead body of a local citizen, killed in Russian shelling that hit an industrial area in Kherson, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/LIBKOS)
Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, center, and Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, right, attend a working session at the EU-Ukraine summit in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 3, 2023. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, center, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, right, and European Council President Charles Michel address a media conference after the EU-Ukraine summit in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, center, European Council President Charles Michel, left, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen address a media conference after the EU-Ukraine summit in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
The body of a local citizen who was killed in Russian shelling, lies on the ground in Kherson, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/LIBKOS)
European Council President Charles Michel (left), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen confer Friday after a news conference during the EU-Ukraine summit in Kyiv, Ukraine. (AP/Efrem Lukatsky)