Ukraine and Russia overshadow EU leaders' gathering in Versailles
European Union leaders met on Thursday night at the Chateau de Versailles just outside Paris for the first round in a series of strategic talks about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
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The gathering - hosted by French president Emmanuel Macron - was convened before the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, ordered his country's forces into Ukraine on 24 February.
The offensive swiftly reordered the agenda of the two-day summit and has reconfigured notions of stability throughout the world.
After 15 days of fighting amid fears of nuclear strikes, nearly 2 million people have fled the bombardments and devastation in Ukraine for havens in the 27 countries of the European Union as well as Britain.
"This isn't a party," France's Europe minister Clement Beaune told France Inter radio before the meetings on Thursday. "We have to be sober during this period."
Mission
A monotone will be difficult to project amid the lavish surroundings and ornately decorated rooms of Louis XIV's former home.
Macron had hoped to exploit the sprawling venue to add a stylish coda to France's six-month presidency of the European Union and burnish his image of an international man of action just before he pursues his campaign for another five-year term as French president.
But personal pomp and circumstance have been sacrificed as he and other top politicians struggle to find solutions to stop the bloodshed and deal with the economic fall-out of the conflict such as rising energy and food prices.
A draft of the meeting's final declaration states: "Russia's war of aggression constitutes a tectonic shift in European history."
Plea
As part of that new reality, the leaders are expected to consider the plea of the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to fast-track his country's membership of the European Union.
However, Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, suggested pursuing such a request could be a distraction.
"There is no such thing as a fast-track," warned Rutte.
"I think what I want to do is acknowledge that all of us - and the Netherlands has been one of the first - come out with military support.
"We collectively have achieved a lot in the area of sanctions but we need to do more potentially.
Focus
"I want to focus on what we can do for Volodymyr Zelensky tonight, tomorrow and the EU accession of Ukraine is something for the long term - if at all. It could take months, maybe years."
A source close to the French presidency said: "Our first priority is to send a political message to Ukraine that it belongs to the European family."
However, diplomats say the main topic in Versailles will be thrashing out a united front on how to wean the bloc off energy supplies from Russia.
Any change is likely to take years to implement.
The EU imports about 40 percent of its natural gas from Russia with Germany, Europe's biggest economy, especially dependent on the energy flow, along with Italy and several central European countries.
About a quarter of the EU's oil imports also come from Russia.
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