European Union leaders will impose new sanctions on Russia, freezing its assets, halting its banks' access to European financial markets and targeting "Kremlin interests" over its "barbaric attack" on Ukraine, senior officials said on Thursday.

An emergency summit starting at 1900 GMT will also discuss offering EU candidate status to Ukraine, Lithuania's President Gitanas Nauseda said, a step Kyiv has long called for, though it may not win approval from all EU leaders.

Russian forces fired missiles at several cities in Ukraine and landed troops on its coast on Thursday...