Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said he would again call on allies to boost its air defences at this week’s meeting in Germany, as US President-elect Donald Trump takes over later this month with a vow to end the almost three-year war quickly.
Zelensky said that dozens of partner countries would participate in the meeting of the Ramstein group at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Thursday, “including those who can help boost our capabilities not only to defend against missiles but also against guided bombs and Russian aviation”.
“We will discuss this with them and continue to persuade them,” Zelensky said in his nightly address on Saturday. “The task remains unchanged: strengthening our air defence.”
US defence-secretary Lloyd J. Austin will attend the meeting. Biden was originally scheduled to attend the October summit in Ramstein but it was postponed because of response to Hurricane Milton that battered the US.
In its last few weeks in office, the Biden administration was pressing to send as much military aid as possible to Ukraine before Trump is sworn in.
Trump claimed during his election campaign that he could end the war in one day and his comments have put a question mark over whether the US will continue to be Ukraine’s biggest — and most important — military backer.
Zelensky said last week that Trump is “strong and unpredictable”, and those qualities can be a decisive factor in his policy approach to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russia controls about one-fifth of Ukraine, and capitalised last year on weaknesses in Ukraine’s defences to slowly advance in eastern areas despite high losses of troops and equipment. The war’s trajectory isn’t in Ukraine’s favour. The country is shorthanded on the front line and needs continued support from its Western partners.
Zelensky on Saturday said that Russian and North Korean troops had suffered heavy losses in Russia’s Kursk region.
“In battles yesterday and today near just one village, Makhnovka, in the Kursk region, the Russian army lost up to a battalion of North Korean infantry soldiers and Russian paratroopers,” Zelensky said. “This is significant.”
