Long acclaimed by MEPs, President Volodymyr Zelensky was welcomed as a hero on Thursday in Brussels where he asked the Twenty-Seven for faster arms deliveries in the face of the advances of the Russian army, a year after the start of the war. invasion of Ukraine.
“We are not just defending our territory, we are defending our European home,” the Ukrainian leader said during a European summit. He “personally” thanked the heads of state and government of the European Union (EU) for their “unwavering support” in recent months.
But he warned that more should be done. “We need artillery, ammunition, modern tanks, long-range missiles, modern fighter jets […]. Please do more. We must go faster than our aggressor”, he hammered, underlining the mobilization in progress on the Russian side.
He also called for tougher economic sanctions against Moscow.
In the morning, Volodymyr Zelensky was first welcomed by MEPs who gave him a standing ovation, after stops in London and Paris the day before. Obviously moved, hand on heart, he listened to the Ukrainian anthem alongside the President of Parliament, Roberta Metsola who hailed “a historic day for Europe”.
“Welcome home, welcome to the EU!” “, launched the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.
The European Union and its Member States estimate at “at least” 67 billion euros their military, financial and humanitarian support for kyiv since the beginning, on February 24, 2022, of the conflict.
Mr Zelensky, who traveled from Paris on French President Emmanuel Macron’s Falcon plane, is continuing a mini-European tour that began on Wednesday, only his second trip abroad since Russia’s outbreak of war. He visited the United States in December.
The moment is crucial for Ukraine, which is worried about the recent successes of the Russian army in the Donbass and fears a major offensive in the coming weeks.
” Do more “
On the front line in eastern Ukraine, the regional military command in Luhansk warned that Russia was attacking near the town of Kreminna and was destroying three nearby settlements. “We need more armored vehicles and ammunition,” he said.
The EU will “continue supporting Ukraine for as long as necessary”, promised German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
“It is very important that we accelerate military aid. We need to do more,” Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas pleaded.
Received in London on Wednesday by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and by King Charles III, the Ukrainian president had been welcomed in Paris on Wednesday evening by Emmanuel Macron who had also invited Olaf Scholz for a late dinner at the Élysée.
MM. Macron and Scholz have so far temporized on planes. “I am convinced that we must give priority to useful deliveries to carry out these operations and resist rather than commitments which will arrive very late or very far away”, explained the French president in Brussels, assuring that the question of the planes had not been discussed in Paris with M. Zelensky.
“You have to look at what is deliverable in the short term,” he insisted.
Already in London, the Ukrainian president had asked for “combat planes for Ukraine, wings for freedom”.
Taboos fall
So far, Westerners have been reluctant to take this step for fear of an escalation with Moscow. But the taboos have been falling one after the other for a year and the supporters of kyiv have already agreed in January to provide heavy tanks.
A Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, warned on Thursday against “an increasing involvement of Germany, the United Kingdom, France in the conflict”. “The boundary between indirect and direct engagement is gradually disappearing. We can only regret it,” he said.
Seeming to open the door to aircraft deliveries, the head of the British government promised to train fighter pilots “to NATO standards”.
He asked the British army to study possible deliveries of planes, a solution which is only possible “in the long term”.
London also claimed that its Challenger tanks would be operational “next month” and promised to immediately send longer-range artillery capabilities, without giving details.
Germany intends, for its part, to provide with its allies at the end of April a first battalion of its highly anticipated Leopard 2 tanks.