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European Union leaders are likely to threaten Russia with new economic sanctions over its action in Ukraine today but officials and diplomats said the bloc was not yet ready to order additional penalties.

At a summit in Brussels that may hand one of the Union’s top jobs to Poland’s prime minister, giving Vladimir Putin’s critics in ex-communist Eastern Europe new influence over EU policy, Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko received a demonstrative welcome from senior officials whom he urged to set new sanctions.

But divisions among the 28 EU nations are likely to stay their hand, with large western countries wary of self-inflicted pain for their own economies. Those include Germany, Britain and France, as well as Italy, which is heavily dependent on Russian gas and expects to secure the post of EU foreign affairs chief.

Rome, whose little-tested young foreign minister is in line for that job, holds the rotating presidency of the Union and prime minister Matteo Renzi wants leaders to agree to meet again soon to forge a plan to revive their stuttering economies. Some fear a slowdown could undermine the bloc’s euro currency.

Mr Poroshenko told reporters he wanted new EU sanctions against president Putin’s Russia, which he accuses of sending in troops to support separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine. It is the Kyiv government’s efforts to bind the former Soviet state closer to the EU that Moscow blames for provoking confrontation.

Mr Poroshenko’s spokesman said on Twitter that his main goal in Brussels was “to forge ever stronger unity of the EU and its solidarity with Ukraine, to seek more resolute EU actions”.

However, echoing comments from other diplomats and officials, Finnish prime minister Alexander Stubb said EU leaders would not decide on new sanctions immediately:

“We will discuss new sanctions as the situation has changed in the last few days … but we will not decide on any new sanctions today,” he told Finnish public radio.

“If Russia continues with its destabilising efforts, I think it is right that sanctions will be toughened but I hope that won’t happen. There are countries that want to toughen sanctions right away and countries that want a more calm approach.”

Mr Poroshenko met Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council whose replacement is due to be decided at the summit, starting at 3pm Irish time. He also met Jose Manuel Barroso, who is being replaced as president of the executive European Commission by former Luxembourg premier Jean-Claude Juncker.

Diplomats said Polish prime minister Donald Tusk has broad support for Mr Van Rompuy’s job, although Mr Stubb, demonstrating Nordic solidarity, said Tusk was still neck and neck with former frontrunner Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the Danish prime minister.

Many officials in Brussels expect a deal that will balance the interests of left- and right-wing factions across the bloc, eastern and western states, northern Europe and the south, as well as satisfy pressure for more women in senior EU roles.

Mr Van Rompuy, whose responsibility it is to try to find ways for the 28 leaders to reach joint decisions, was in contact with them in the run-up to the summit. But a final agreement is unlikely to emerge until they meet in person later today.

Agencies