BRUSSELS (AP) — President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday called on his Western allies for more weapons and said “a Ukraine that wins” its war with Russia deserves membership in the European Union, arguing that the bloc would not be complete without it.
At the end of a 16-hour summit that ended on Friday when Zelenskyy had already left, EU leaders promised they would do whatever it took for Ukraine, but did not present an express timetable for EU accession talks to begin as Zelenskyy had hoped.
French President Emmanuel Macron said leaders agreed that Ukraine “relentlessly, long-term . . . to win the war. “
EU leaders pledged over the next month to expand munitions production for Ukraine’s war effort as it faces new demanding situations from Russia.
EU Council President Charles Michel said the bloc “will cooperate with the trade sector and make sure that we can boost munitions production and that they too can deliver on the commitments that are Array. “
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said a new $10. 7 billion sanctions package being discussed would aim to deprive Russia of the military assets it wants and unload them elsewhere.
The sanctions package “targets goods that are irreplaceable from elsewhere,” he said.
While in Brussels, Zelenskyy asked Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger to give Ukraine its Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets.
Macron ruled out sending French fighter jets to Ukraine, but said Zelenskyy asked for them and that they were Ukraine’s ultimate pressing need.
“Under no circumstances can fighter jets be delivered in the coming weeks,” Macron said, not least because of the necessary education. He said France could simply “step up” deliveries of other devices such as artillery or missile systems.
The commitments came after an emotional day at EU headquarters where Zelenskyy concluded a rare two-day departure out of Ukraine to search for new weapons from the West to fend off Moscow’s nearly year-long invasion. As he spoke, a new Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine was underway.
Zelenskyy, who has also visited the UK and France, won enthusiastic applause and cheers from the European Parliament and a summit of 27 EU leaders, insisting in his speech that the fight with Russia is one for the freedom of all Europe.
“A Ukraine that wins will be a member of the European Union,” Zelenskyy said, building his appeal around the not unusual fate Ukraine and the bloc face Russia.
“Europe will be and remain Europe as long as weArray. . . Take care of the European way of life,” he said.
EU accession talks are expected to begin later this year, Zelenskyy said, an ambitious call given the enormous task ahead. Such a move would motivate Ukrainian foot soldiers in their defense of the country, he said.
“Of course we want it this year,” he said, then looked at Michel and insisted, ironically: “When I say this year, I mean this year. Two, zero, 23. “
Der Leyen, however, said there is “no inflexible timetable. “In practice, accession has taken decades.
Zelenskyy waved an EU flag after his speech and lawmakers kept a somber silence as the Ukrainian national anthem and the European anthem “Ode to Joy” were played successively.
Ahead of her speech, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said allies deserve to “quickly deliver, as a next step, long-range systems” and fighter jets to Ukraine. The reaction to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine “must be proportionate to the risk, and the risk is existential,” he said.
Metsola also told Zelenskyy that “we you. We were with you then, we are with you now, we will be with you as long as it takes. “
A draft of the summit’s conclusions reported through The Associated Press said “the European Union will stand firm in Ukraine for as long as necessary. “
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the bloc will send Zelenskyy “this sign of unity and solidarity, and it can show that we will continue our support for Ukraine to protect its independence and integrity. “
Military analysts say Putin expects Europe’s confidence in Ukraine to wane as Russia intends to prepare a new offensive.
Kremlin forces “have regained the initiative in Ukraine and have begun their next major offensive” in the eastern Luhansk region, most of which is occupied by Russia, the Institute for War Studies said in its most recent assessment. “Russian forces are launching an offensive, yet their good fortune is neither inherent nor predetermined. “
Zelenskyy used the level of the European Parliament in hopes of matching Wednesday’s speech with the British legislature when he thanked the country for its unwavering support.
That very thing came here from the EU. The bloc and its member states have already subsidized Kiev with aid of about $53. 6 billion, provided military hardware and imposed nine packages of sanctions on the Kremlin.
Russia is closely following Zelenskyy’s movements. On Wednesday, Russian state television showed the flight trail of a British Air Force plane Zelenskyy used to reach London, taken from a flight-tracking site. The presenter noted that the plane flew from an air base in Rzeszow, Poland, which is a hub for Western arms deliveries to Ukraine.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council chaired by Putin, visited an arms factory in Siberia on Thursday and his country would respond to the West by generating thousands of tanks.
“Our enemy was not planes, missiles and easy tanks on a vacation abroad,” Medvedev said during a stopover at the Omsk plant. talking about the production and fashion of thousands of tanks. “
Fighting in Ukraine intensified on Thursday, with Kiev’s army intelligence firm saying Russian forces had introduced an offensive in the partially occupied regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, aiming to completely take over the entire commercial region, known as Donbass. Moscow-backed separatists have been battling Ukrainian forces there since 2014.
“An escalation is taking place and the main target is Donbass until the end of March,” General Intelligence Directorate spokesman Andriy Yusov told Ukrainian television.
In Donetsk, the front line was broadened over the past day, with fierce battles taking up positions as Moscow’s forces moved closer to key cities controlled by Ukraine, according to regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko. The Russian bombing hit a kindergarten, a hospital, a cultural center, a factory and apartment buildings, he said.
RUSSIA-U. S. RELATIONS IN CRISIS
Russia-US relations are in a state of “unprecedented crisis” with no signs of improvement, a senior Russian diplomat said on Thursday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov argued that the White House over expanding arms deliveries to Ukraine to ensure that Russia’s defeat leaves no room for diplomacy.
“I don’t see any prospect of a productive political and diplomatic process,” Ryabkov told a news conference. “We have a very deep and unprecedented crisis in Russian-American relations. Biden’s tenure has led them to a dead end. “
Ryabkov warned that the United States and its allies will have to thoroughly assess the dangers of supplying increasingly resilient Western weapons to Ukraine.
“Americans want to weigh deeply and very well the dangers of their shameless arrogant behavior,” he said.
Ryabkov noted that Moscow does not accept as true Western statements related to self-imposed restrictions on a diversity of weapons provided to Ukraine to avoid escalation, adding that such guarantees in the afterlife have served as a canopy for a stable expansion of the collection. of deliveries of weapons.
“We don’t see any sign of explanation of why in any of the capitals of NATO and EU members,” Ryabkov said. “What they’re doing will rarely make them safer. “
He rejected the U. S. argument that Russia’s refusal to allow inspections of its nuclear facilities to resume is a violation of the New START Treaty, the newest nuclear arms pact between the two countries.
The New START Treaty, signed in 2010 by President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, limits the country to a maximum of 1550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers. The agreement provides for extensive on-site inspections to determine compliance.
Just days before the treaty expires in February 2021, Russia and the United States agreed to extend it for five years.
Russia and the United States have suspended mutual inspections under New START since the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic, but Moscow refused last fall to allow them to resume, increasing uncertainty about the future of the pact. Russia also postponed indefinitely a series of consultations under the treaty.
Information for this article provided by Raf Casert, Samuel Petrequin and Vladimir Isachenkov of The Associated Press.