Zelensky meets top military leaders in Germany as US announces additional aid to Ukraine

kyiv, September 6: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with top military leaders from the United States and more than 50 partner countries in Germany on Friday to push for additional arms support, as Washington announced it would provide an additional $250 million in security assistance to kyiv.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the leaders’ meeting came at a dynamic moment in Ukraine’s fight against Russia, as it conducts its first offensive operations of the war while facing a significant threat from Russian forces near a key center in Donbass.

So far, the surprise assault on the Russian territory of Kursk has not distracted President Vladimir Putin from his priority of seizing the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, which provides critical rail and supply lines to the Ukrainian military. The loss of Pokrovsk could endanger other Ukrainian cities.

While the Kursk attack has put Russia on the defensive, “we know that Putin’s malice runs deep,” Austin warned in prepared remarks to the media ahead of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting. Moscow is pushing, particularly around Pokrovsk, Austin said.

Russia’s recent deadly airstrikes have renewed Zelensky’s calls for the United States to further ease restrictions and secure even greater Western capabilities to strike deeper into Russia. However, Friday’s meeting was expected to focus on acquiring more air defense and artillery resources and building on gains in expanding Ukraine’s defense industrial base, to put it on a firmer footing as the final days of Joe Biden’s U.S. presidency draw to a close.

Zelensky said he would continue to push for Russia to have a long-range strike capability. “Strong and long-term decisions by our partners are needed to bring us closer to the just peace we seek,” Zelensky said Friday on Telegram.

Western partner countries are working with Ukraine to find a replacement missile for its Soviet-era S-300 air defense systems, Austin said.

The United States is also focused on acquiring a variety of air-to-ground missiles that recently delivered F-16 fighter jets can carry, including the Fixed-Orbit Air-to-Ground Missile, which could give Ukraine a longer-range cruise missile option, said Bill LaPlante, the Pentagon’s top arms buyer, who spoke to reporters traveling with Austin.

No decision has been made on munitions, LaPlante said, noting that policymakers will still have to decide whether to give Ukraine a longer-range capability.

“I would just put the JASSM in that category, it’s something that’s still under study,” LaPlante said. “Anything that’s an air-to-ground weapon is still under study.”

For two years, members of the Contact Group on Ukraine’s Defense have been meeting to address Ukraine’s massive artillery and air defense needs, ranging from hundreds of millions of rounds of small arms ammunition to some of the West’s most sophisticated air defense systems, and now fighter jets. This month’s request was more of the same, but different in that it was in person, and followed a similar in-person visit to Kyiv on Thursday by Biden’s deputy national security adviser Jon Finer, as Zelenskyy shores up U.S. support ahead of the change in administration.

Since 2022, member countries have collectively provided approximately $106 billion in security assistance to Ukraine. The United States has provided more than $56 billion of that total.

The German government said Chancellor Olaf Scholz plans to meet Zelenskyy in Frankfurt on Friday afternoon. (AP)