Tuesday, September 3, 2024
Year : 2, Issue: 35
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy yesterday said Ukraine’s Western allies should not only allow their weapons to be used for strikes deep inside Russia, but also supply Kyiv with more of the arms themselves.
Ukraine has long urged partners to allow it to fire Western weapons at targets far into enemy territory, and those calls have grown louder as Russian airstrikes on Ukrainian energy installations, other infrastructure and residential buildings intensify.
After a meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on Monday, Zelenskiy said Kyiv was “more positive” about the prospects of getting such permission.
“For today, only to allow – is also not enough,” he said, adding that allies should ensure deliveries of weapons to use for such attacks. “We didn’t get everything we would like to use,” Zelenskiy added.
Zelenskiy added that some agreements on supplies had not been fulfilled.
He said he discussed with Schoof strengthening Ukraine’s air defences. He mentioned there were “some ideas” on how to increase the fleet of F-16 jets donated by allies, one of which was lost in a crash in Ukraine last week.
“We will keep providing air defence equipment, and F-16s, and funding for munitions,” Schoof said.
Schoof added that the Netherlands would provide Ukraine with around 200 million euros ($221.4 million) in support to repair energy infrastructure and for humanitarian assistance.
He added that Ukraine believed the operation could help to ease pressure on the Pokrovsk front in Ukraine’s east, where Russia has accelerated its advances. So far, he said, the situation there remained difficult.
Source: Reuters
