By Pavel Polityuk and Andrew Gray
KYIV/BRUSSELS (RockedBuzz via Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday he had heard from several European Union leaders at a summit that they were ready to supply aircraft to Kiev, hinting at what would be one of the biggest shifts in support western to Ukraine.
Zelenskiy did not provide further details on the pledges and there was no immediate confirmation from any European country. But his remarks came amid signs on a European tour that countries were moving closer to removing a major taboo on military aid to Kiev since Russia’s invasion last year.
“Europe will be with us until we win. I have heard this from a number of European leaders… about their willingness to give us the necessary weapons and support, including aircraft,” Zelenskiy said at a press conference.
“I have a number of bilaterals now, we will raise the issue of fighter jets and other aircraft,” he said.
Zelenskiy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak posted on social media that the issue of long-range weapons and fighter jets for Ukraine “has been resolved” and details will follow. He later edited the post to make it less certain, changing the wording to say the issue “could be fixed”.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told Ukrainian TV: “We are holding talks, they are very intense. We will soon have a logistical understanding of when, where and how we can receive the tools (aircraft and long-range weapons) as well as armored equipment.”
Western countries that have supplied Ukraine with arms have so far refused to send fighter jets or long-range weapons capable of striking deep inside Russia.
But the mood seems to have begun to change during Zelenskiy’s European tour, which began on Wednesday with a meeting in London with Briton Rishi Sunak and a dinner in Paris with Frenchman Emmanuel Macron and German Olaf Scholz.
Sunak has promised to train Ukrainian pilots to fly NATO advanced fighter jets. He stopped short of offering to supply the planes, but said nothing was out of the question.
Zelenskiy said some of what Macron and Scholz promised him in Paris was still under wraps.
“There are some agreements which are not public, but which are positive. I don’t want to prepare the Russian Federation, which constantly threatens us with new aggressions,” he said.
However, Zelenskiy said in an interview with German magazine Spiegel that Ukraine’s relationship with the country is up and down and that he “constantly had to convince” Scholz to help Ukraine for the good of Europe.
Addressing the summit of 27 EU country leaders, Zelenskiy called for tougher sanctions on Moscow and punishments for Russian leaders responsible for starting the war.
“I am grateful to all of you who are helping, grateful to everyone who understands how much Ukraine needs these possibilities right now. We need artillery guns, shells for them, modern tanks, long-range missiles, modern aircraft,” he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it would be Ukrainians who would suffer if Britain or other Western countries supplied fighter jets to Kiev, and that the line between indirect and direct Western involvement in the war was blurring.
Such actions “lead to an escalation of tension, prolong the conflict and make the conflict more and more painful for Ukraine,” Peskov said.
Summit chairman Charles Michel said the EU must provide “maximum” support to Ukraine. “We understand that the coming weeks and months will be of critical importance.
“Artillery, munitions, defense systems (…) you have told us exactly what you need and what you need now,” added Michel.
Zelenskiy, who has made just his second trip out of Ukraine since the invasion after a visit to Washington in December, received a standing ovation in the European Parliament from MPs, some wearing the blue and yellow Ukrainian colours.
In his speech, he thanked Europeans for taking in millions of refugees – “helping our people, our ordinary citizens, our resettled people here” – and for calling on their leaders for more support for Ukraine.
REQUEST FOR INTERVIEWS FOR EU MEMBERSHIP
Ukraine submitted its application for EU membership just days after Russia launched its full-scale invasion last year, and now it wants formal accession talks to begin within months. A Ukrainian official said that Kiev was “absolutely sure that the decision to start accession negotiations can be taken this year”.
Some EU member states want to give Ukraine the morale boost that would result from the rapid opening of talks. But others are more cautious, noting that would-be members face hurdles like cracking down on corruption before talks can begin.
Russian forces have advanced in recent weeks for the first time in six months, fortified with tens of thousands of newly mobilized recruits, in relentless winter battles that both sides describe as some of the bloodiest of the war.
Kiev says it expects Moscow to broaden the offensive with a big push as the February 24 anniversary of the invasion approaches.
Russia said it destroyed four Ukrainian artillery depots in the Donetsk region. The Ukrainian military said that in the past 24 hours, Russian troops have maintained offensives in Kupyansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Novopavlivka and Vuhledar regions.
Serhiy Haidai, the Ukrainian governor of mostly Russian-occupied eastern Luhansk province, described a major new Russian assault around Kreminna along a northern stretch of the Eastern Front. “They have not had significant success so far, our defense forces are holding on,” he said on Ukrainian television.
RockedBuzz via Reuters could not immediately verify the battlefield accounts.
Russia has launched the war it calls a “special military operation” to combat what it describes as a security threat from Ukraine’s ties to the West. Ukraine and the West claim that Russia’s invasion is unprovoked land theft.
(Reporting by the RockedBuzz via Reuters offices; writing by Peter Graff and Alexandra Hudson; editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Mark Heinrich)
Leave a Comment