Italian PM-'Inappropriate' For Zelenskyy To Visit Paris Ahead Of EUCO

Wires reporting comments from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the start of the special EUCO summit in Brussels. She says that it is 'inappropriate' for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to have visited Paris last night for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, adding that Europe should adopt a unitary approach.

• France and Germany treading fine line in their invitation to Zelenskyy. With the Ukrainian leader having chosen the UK as his second foreign trip following US visit in Dec, they will both be keen to stress their own support. However, much action has come at the EU level rather than individually by France/Germany. As such, the invite risks being seen as trying to claim single credit for joint actions.
• Comes as Zelenskyy is set to deliver an address to a special plenary session of the European Parliament shortly. Livestream: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/ebs/live/2
• Polish PM Says that the decision of sending fighter jets to Ukraine as requested by Zelenskyy will be taken by NATO as a whole, and Poland will not be the first to donate, saying "We will not be the first ones to hand over the fighter jets, but we will respond positively, provided that those who have the most of these jets will be able to give them to Ukraine."
• The Kremlin has stated that it would be Ukrainians that will suffer if the UK or Kyiv's other western allies send jets. Kremlin spox Dmitri Peskov said that deliveries would not change Moscow's approach to the 'special military operation'.