President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked the European Union on 16 October 2026 to prepare a "winter package" of air defense, energy repairs and financing, hours after Russian strikes hit energy facilities in four Ukrainian regions. He made the request in Brussels at a meeting with European Council President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, according to the Ukrainian presidency's account of the talks.
Zelenskyy told the two leaders that attacks on cities had continued into the morning. A strike on Kharkiv killed two people and injured 17, he said, and another hit a shopping mall in Rivne. "That is why we must prepare a winter package," the presidency quoted him as saying.
Energy first, then interceptors, then money
The three parts of the package reflect the shape of Russia's autumn campaign. Strikes on substations and generating plants leave cities without power as temperatures fall; air defense is the only way to stop the next wave; and repairs, fuel imports and a working budget all have to be paid for while the fighting continues. The presidency said the meeting covered support for Ukraine's finances both this year and next.
Costa said this was "no time to withdraw support to Ukraine" and no time to ease sanctions on Russia. Von der Leyen focused on accession, saying the aim was to open the last two negotiating clusters by the end of the year after two were opened this week. No new funding or delivery decision was announced at the meeting.
Finland talks turn to shelters
In a separate meeting the same day with Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, Zelenskyy said parts of the Volyn region and of Kyiv were still without power after the previous evening's attack. "Overnight and throughout today, Russia launched new strikes on our energy facilities," he said.
Ukraine and Finland founded the Shelter Coalition together, and Zelenskyy said that work now had to be accelerated so that "every Ukrainian city and community" has proper shelters. He repeated that Ukraine constantly needs systems that can intercept missiles and drones, and said new support decisions were expected "as early as this month".
Shelters and interceptors protect people in different ways. An interceptor stops a weapon before it arrives; a shelter limits the harm when one gets through. Finland, with one of the most extensive civil-defense shelter networks in Europe, is an obvious partner for the second task.
The scale of the problem
The Brussels meetings came the same day Ukraine's General Staff reported 253 drones downed or suppressed in a single daytime attack, one measure of the volume of weapons that any winter air-defense plan has to absorb. Whatever the EU assembles will combine donated systems, new orders and loans, the mechanics of which are set out in how military aid packages are structured.
For now, the package is a request rather than a commitment. The next markers to watch are a European Council decision on winter financing, announcements of interceptor deliveries, and whether the "last two clusters" of accession talks open before the year ends.