Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday urged G7 countries to supply more weapons and gas to Ukraine as people in his country are hit by the onset of winter, often without power and without heating.
“Ukraine needs modern tanks”, would like “artillery, guns and shells”, as well as “long-range missiles”, listed Mr. Zelensky at the G7 meeting by videoconference, according to reports by the Ukrainian Presidency.
Faced with his Western allies, the Ukrainian leader once again deplored Russia’s military advantage “in terms of artillery and missiles”. “It’s a fact,” he hammered, to support his request.
For several months, Westerners have been delivering abundant weapons of all kinds to kyiv, including the very precise American HIMARS rocket launchers and French CAESAR guns.
Their impact on the battlefield has been salutary for Ukraine, gradually reversing the balance of power.
In September, Ukrainian soldiers forced the Russian military to withdraw from a large part of the northeast, in the Kharkiv region. Before the Ukrainians drove the Russians out of the southern city of Kherson, the main Russian war prize since the end of February, in early November.
“The more effective we are with such weapons, the shorter the Russian aggression will be,” Volodymyr Zelensky swore.
“Extra Gas”
In addition to weapons, the Ukrainian president has demanded more gas from the West, as Ukraine is facing major energy difficulties following large-scale Russian strikes on its entire network since the beginning of October.
According to Kyiv, 40% of essential national facilities are now damaged. Enough to force millions of Ukrainians to live daily in the dark and in the cold, between repeated power cuts and lack of heating.
“We need extra support this winter. We are talking about a volume of around two billion cubic meters of gas that needs to be purchased additionally,” he said.
Ukraine has had to “use more gas than expected” in recent weeks, for lack of being able to use its electricity network, which has been put out of action by multiple strikes by the Russian army, which seems determined to pursue this strategy.
On the ground, Ukraine is covered with a light white coat and the temperatures are negative, raising fears of a new exodus to Europe.
Since then, the Ukrainian authorities have regularly called on the population to “hold on”, despite these increasingly difficult living conditions, particularly in the south and east.
In his daily address in the evening, Volodymyr Zelensky repeated fears of new Russian “massive missile strikes”.
“The enemy is preparing for it and can strike at any time,” he said, saying destroying Ukraine’s energy system was Moscow’s “last hope”.
“World Peace Summit”
Volodymyr Zelensky, who talks very regularly with his Western allies, also proposed on Monday the organization of a “world peace summit” to “decide how and when we can implement the points of the Ukrainian peace formula” .
However, he did not give more details on the date on which this summit could take place, nor with whom exactly and under what conditions.
In mid-November, he proposed a 10-point peace plan, from the restoration of territorial integrity to the fate of prisoners, including food security in Ukraine.
An initiative brushed aside by the Kremlin, even if Vladimir Putin acknowledged on Friday that an agreement would be necessary “in the end” to put an end to the conflict, while expressing doubts about the “confidence” that Moscow can according to him grant to his foreign interlocutors.
Mr. Zelensky on Monday called on the Russian government to “take a concrete and significant step towards a diplomatic settlement”, in the run-up to the end-of-year holidays, “a time when normal people think of peace, not of ‘assault “.
“If Russia withdraws its troops from Ukraine, a lasting cessation of hostilities will be ensured,” said the Ukrainian president.
During their virtual summit, the leaders of the G7 agreed on the establishment of a “platform” responsible for “coordinating financial assistance” to Ukraine, on the eve of a conference on the same subject in Paris, around French President Emmanuel Macron.