KYIV (Reuters) -A Ukrainian victory in its war with Russia depends on cooperation with the European Union, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told EU foreign ministers gathered in Kyiv on Monday.
Zelenskiy also underlined the importance of “defence support” for Ukraine after the U.S. Congress left Ukraine war aid out of a spending bill and an election in Slovakia was won by a party whose leader said he would end military supplies from army storage to Ukraine.
Ukraine hopes to meet a series of EU criteria for joining the bloc, and has relied heavily on Western military assistance since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
“I am sure that Ukraine and the entire free world are capable of winning this confrontation. But our victory depends directly on our cooperation with you,” Zelenskiy said in a statement to the ministers.
“It is very important for us all to make steps forward in every area, without stopping at anything, adding activity to Europe, adding leadership to Europe,” he added in the statement, which was posted on the presidential website.
“New steps are constantly needed on defence and diplomacy, politics and integration, economy and sanctions, steps which will make our common positions stronger.”
These steps, he said, included “activity in defence support for Ukraine and protection of life.”
“It is also very important to maximize the reinforcement of Ukraine’s sky shield in the run-up to winter. The air defence systems our country received, such as Patriot, IRIS-T, NASAMS and others, are already playing a positive role and saving lives,” he said.
“We need more of these systems – in particular, a few Patriots for the protection of our southern regions can fundamentally change the situation and to a large extent make Russian terror meaningless.”
(Reporting by Olena Harmash)
