FRANKFURT: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said ahead of an EU-Ukraine summit next week that Ukraine had unconditional support from the bloc and that the country needed to prevail against Russian attacks to defend European values.”We stand by Ukraine’s side without any ifs and buts,” von der Leyen said in a speech at an event of her party, the Christian Democrat CDU, in Duesseldorf, Germany.Ukraine “is fighting for our shared values, it is fighting for the respect of international law and for the principles of democracy and that is why Ukraine has to win this war,” she said.Von der Leyen and her fellow EU commissioners plan an EU-Ukraine summit on Feb. 3.US President Joe Biden recently promised 31 Abrams tanks, one of the most powerful and sophisticated weapons in the US army, to help Kyiv fight off Moscow’s invasion.North Korea slammed Washington’s decision to supply Ukraine with tanks, claiming the US is “further expanding the proxy war” to destroy Russia.Along with China, Russia is one of the North’s few international friends and has previously come to the regime’s aid.In a statement, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, blamed Washington for the crisis in Ukraine, accusing it of “further crossing the red line” by sending the tanks.”Lurking behind this is the US sinister intention to realize its hegemonic aim by further expanding the proxy war for destroying Russia,” she said in the statement.Washington is “the arch criminal”, she added, and Pyongyang will “always stand in the same trench with the service personnel and people of Russia.””The world would be brighter, safer and calmer now if it were not for the US,” she said.Other than Syria and Russia, North Korea is the only country to recognize the independence of Luhansk and Donetsk, two Russian-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine.Russia, one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, has long held the line against increasing pressure on North Korea, even asking for relief from international sanctions for humanitarian reasons.Kim Jong Un declared North Korea an “irreversible” nuclear state in September, and the country conducted sanctions-busting weapons tests nearly every month last year — including firing its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile.