Russia-Ukraine war live: EU approves €500m military aid for Ukraine; Germany starts deploying Patriot air defence to Poland

LIVE – Updated at 17:08 EU ratifies military aid package to Ukraine; air defence systems moved into Polish territory to be deployed to prevent stray

missile strikes.   17:08 The Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said during a press briefing that his country was ready to build a “small coalition” of

states to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine, even without Germany’s consent. “We will ask Germany for permission … but this is of secondary importance,” said Morawiecki.

  17:08 Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has said he will not support Sweden’s Nato membership bid after a protest in Stockholm at the weekend that

included the burning of a copy of the Qur’an. Protests in the Swedish capital on Saturday have heightened tensions with Turkey at a time when the Nordic country needs

Ankara’s backing to gain entry to the military alliance. Ankara has been under increasing pressure from Swedish and Finnish officials as well as the Nato chief, Jens

Stoltenberg, to approve Sweden and Finland’s accession since the three countries signed a trilateral memorandum during a Nato summit in Madrid last June. The two Nordic

countries agreed to address security concerns raised by Turkey, namely the presence of Kurdish organisations in Sweden that Ankara claims have links to the Kurdistan Workers’

party (PKK), which Turkey, the EU and Washington have designated a terrorist group. But speaking today after a cabinet meeting, Erdoğan said: Those who allow

such blasphemy in front of our embassy (in Stockholm) can no longer expect our support for their Nato membership.