Ukraine pitches for more EU aid for south-east as elections near

FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin speaks during an annual news conference in Kiev, Ukraine January 18, 2019. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko/File Photo

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Ukraine's foreign minister asked the European Union on Monday for hundreds of millions of euros in loans and aid for infrastructure and businesses in its troubled east and south, regions he said Russia was trying to "suffocate".

EU foreign ministers were discussing increasing support for Ukraine, which holds a presidential election next month in tough conditions. Russia annexed its Crimea peninsula in 2014 and backs armed separatists in its eastern industrial Donbas region.