Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Italy on Friday after making a passionate appeal for more weapons from his allies gathered in Germany as Moscow advances on the eastern front.
The Ukrainian leader is to continue to plead his country’s case at the European House — Ambrosetti economic forum in Cernobbio (north), a sort of mini-Davos. He will meet in particular with the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni.
Also present was Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has remained close to the Kremlin despite the war in Ukraine, whose country holds the EU presidency and who said he hoped to meet the Ukrainian leader.
During their last face-to-face meeting in kyiv in early July, Mr Orban had called on Mr Zelensky to consider a “quick ceasefire”, illustrating their differences, but also those existing between Budapest and most Europeans.
The Hungarian reiterated his calls for a ceasefire on Friday, which Zelensky immediately rejected. “A lot of people are talking about a ceasefire right now,” but Russian President Vladimir Putin has never kept his past promises to silence the guns. Each time, “they started killing us again on the contact line,” he said.
Coming for the first time to the meeting of international supporters in kyiv, in western Germany, Volodymyr Zelensky demanded from his allies “more weapons” to push back Russian forces, “in particular in the Donetsk region” in the east.
He then met Chancellor Olaf Scholz not far from there, in Frankfurt, for a meeting focusing in particular on “the common search for a just and lasting peace for Ukraine” according to the chancellery.
Long range missiles
Two and a half years after the launch of the Russian invasion, Ukraine is struggling: its offensive, which began in early August on Russian territory in the Kursk region, has not helped to stop Moscow’s advance in the East.
Moscow is increasing its deadly bombings, such as the recent one on a military institute in Poltava, in central Ukraine, which left at least 55 dead.
A salvo of Russian missiles killed at least one person and injured 40 others in Pavlograd on Friday and destroyed a residential building in the city in central-eastern Ukraine, according to authorities.
At the US airbase in Ramstein, Mr Zelensky reiterated his demand to be able to use long-range weapons supplied by his partners “not only on the occupied territory of Ukraine, but also on Russian territory” to destroy the bases from which Moscow launches its missiles.
In Italy, he argued that under no circumstances would these weapons be used to hit civilians or non-military targets, even if “they are our enemies, because they support Putin’s policies.”
Several major countries, including its two main arms suppliers, the United States and Germany, nevertheless continue to balk for fear of an escalation with Moscow, which regularly raises the nuclear threat.
“I don’t think any one capability will be decisive,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said after the meeting, saying Ukraine should rely on a combination of different weapons.
His German counterpart, Boris Pistorius, said Berlin’s position on the matter remained unchanged.
New military aid
Lloyd Austin announced $250 million in new military aid that will “enhance capabilities to meet Ukraine’s evolving needs.”
“Moscow continues its offensive in eastern Ukraine, particularly around Pokrovsk. And the Kremlin continues to bomb Ukrainian cities and target Ukrainian civilians. It’s an outrage,” Austin said.
London also announced a £162 million (C$288 million) contract for 650 lightweight short-range multirole missiles, which can be fired from a variety of land, sea and air platforms.
Mr Pistorius himself announced the delivery of twelve Type 2000 howitzers, six of which will be delivered this year and the rest in 2025, for a total of 150 million euros. Berlin confirmed on Wednesday new deliveries of Iris-T air defence systems which are to help intercept Russian missiles.
Since the beginning of the war, the defense ministers of the contact group have met regularly in Ramstein to discuss with military representatives support for kyiv.
“Ukraine needs increased military support,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in Oslo, calling on “all allies to continue their vital support, particularly in this difficult phase of the war.”
While they regularly reaffirm their unwavering solidarity, many governments are faced with divided public opinion as the war drags on.
kyiv is all the more worried because the time of large aid packages from the United States, where a return to power by Donald Trump is not excluded, seems to be over and because France, which with Berlin makes up the leading duo of the EU, has been embroiled for weeks in an internal political crisis.