Hello and welcome to Battleground with me, Patrick Bishop and Saul David.

We're speaking to you this morning at a bit of a disadvantage not knowing one of the most

consequential diplomatic gatherings in the history of this conflict is going to play out.

I'm talking about the gathering of EU leaders in Brussels to discuss whether to grant Ukraine access

to frozen Russian assets to bankroll its war effort.

We'll be diving into all that, as well as bringing you an exclusive interview with a member

of the Khatir Brigade, a unit at the cutting edge of Ukraine's high-tech warfighting approach,

who listeners will remember we visited earlier this year.

They're going to be telling us all about their recent successful counter-offensive in the Kupiansky

area, all fascinating firsthand stuff.

But first, that EU summit, which is taking place as we speak, Unless things go Ukraine's way, Kiev could well be

bankrupt by next spring and its ability to defend itself seriously hampered. But there's much

more at stake than just that, isn't there, so? Yeah, I think there is, Patrick. It's not an exaggeration

to say that the credibility of the EU is at stake here.

We've lost count, haven't we, of the number of European summits to discuss the Ukraine crisis

and the reams of fine-sounding statements about doing what it takes to defend Kiv.

But there's been a lamentable gap between words and actions,

with the latter lagging some

distance behind the sentiments on the endless press releases. So this, I think, is a moment when

Europe is going to have to put its money where its mouth is. Yeah, all right itself out of

the script as far as having any part to play and how the war in Ukraine is settled. It's really hard to overestimate, I think, the significance of this event.

So Europe has to act decisively, I think, first and foremost, for its own self-esteem.

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