Air defense and energy support: Zelenskyy sums up Coalition of the Willing summit
Photo: Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine (Getty Images)
The Coalition of the Willing is providing Ukraine with new military and energy support. Strengthening air defense is the top priority, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at a press conference following the Coalition of the Willing meeting in Kyiv.
Zelenskyy on the outcomes of the Coalition of the Willing meeting
Zelenskyy noted that the meeting was attended by:
- all EU countries;
- EU leaders;
- NATO representatives;
- Türkiye;
- the leaders of Japan, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
"Ukraine received military and energy support packages today. Thank you, Alex, for air defense, and thank you to all our friends for funding certain things. Thank you for the assistance and additional funding for drones," the president said.
Zelenskyy said that strengthening air defense would be the priority of further support for Ukraine from its partners.
There are two main areas:
- finding and purchasing PAC-3 missiles through PURL and other formats;
- accelerating the Freyja project.
Support from the UK, France and Germany
Zelenskyy highlighted support from the UK, whose prime minister Andy Burnham visited Ukraine for the first time, as well as from France and Germany.
"We thank the Prime Minister for being with us. We also thank Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz, who was also online and closed our meeting," Zelenskyy said.
The president identified protecting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure ahead of winter as the main challenge.
"Europe is preparing a new €6.1 billion loan tranche. Then our prime minister took part and briefed them on the financial needs. This is also a serious challenge, the details and the mathematics of this war. We will all work on this deficit," Zelenskyy said.
Shadow fleet and talks with Russia
The president also said that Macron had proposed stepping up efforts against Russia’s shadow fleet. Ukraine plans to hold a separate meeting on the issue.
Zelenskyy said he believes Europe must be at the negotiating table with Russia under any circumstances.
"Although, to be honest, many of the leaders who were here and spoke today are skeptical that Putin is actually ready for any negotiations at this point," he said.
The Ukrainian president also noted that Ukraine had addressed all leaders with a specific request.
"We asked that there be no pauses between meetings of the Coalition of the Willing. And we strongly asked for a corresponding meeting in September."
Earlier, RBC-Ukraine reported that the UK would make a significant contribution to strengthening Ukraine’s air defenses ahead of the coming winter. British Prime Minister Andy Burnham made the statement.
In addition, Ukraine’s partners announced several important defense initiatives. These include preparing Gripen fighter jets for the transfer of SCALP missile technology, as well as new agreements on joint drone production.
