Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine wants the US to stay involved in efforts to end the war after a meeting of western allies in London that took place without US president Donald Trump.
Mr Zelenskiy chose not to overtly lobby for the supply of US Tomahawk cruise missiles at a meeting of more than 20 mainly European leaders from the “coalition of the willing”. He instead emphasised the need for the west to work together.
“We are not finding and searching how to stop Putin and how to finish this work without the US,” Mr Zelenskiy said at the end of the hybrid meeting aimed at discussing how to step up pressure on Russian president Vladimir Putin ahead of winter.
The Ukrainian leader also said that when it came to the post-war security guarantees for his country, “we need to have the United States”.
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Warning that “Putin wants to divide us”, Mr Zelenskiy said that while Mr Trump had declined to authorise the supply of Tomahawks, western nations had previously “evolved together” by providing Anglo-French Storm Shadow missiles, followed by US Atacms.
It was a hint that he hoped Mr Trump could eventually be persuaded into providing a weapon that he believes could impact Russia’s military-industrial complex and could change the Kremlin’s thinking over whether to negotiate for peace.
Earlier, UK prime minister Keir Starmer told the meeting he believed “there’s further we can do on capability, particularly . . . long-range capability”. It was an indication that the UK wants Ukraine’s allies to supply long-range missiles and help Kyiv strike Russian targets deep behind the frontline.
This week, Ukraine used a British Storm Shadow missile to bomb a Russian plant in Bryansk that produced explosives and rocket fuel. But the US has so far declined to supply Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Mr Zelenskiy said Russia was trying to cause a “humanitarian disaster” this winter, adding: “We’re thankful to you that we are not alone in this situation – from the very beginning of the war but especially now, it’s very important.”
Earlier, the Ukrainian leader visited Britain’s King Charles at Windsor before heading to Downing Street for a one-on-one meeting with Mr Starmer. The pair then moved to the British foreign office for the full meeting with European leaders.
Others attending in person included Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary general, as well as Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister and Dick Schoof, the prime minister of the Netherlands. The others participated online.
The online and in-person gathering came a day after EU leaders failed to make a firm decision on whether to use €140 billion frozen Russian central bank assets to fund Ukraine’s defence, while the relationship between Mr Trump and Mr Zelenskiy remains delicate.
[ US and EU target Russian oil companies funding the war in UkraineOpens in new window ]
Russia has, meanwhile, intensified its bombing of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Power and water were out in Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv this week, after targeted attacks aimed at breaking public resistance inside Ukraine.
Ahead of the meeting, Mr Starmer accused the Russian president of wanting to prolong a war in which Ukrainian civilians were coming under attack. “From the battlefield to the global markets, as Putin continues to commit atrocities in Ukraine, we must ratchet up the pressure on Russia,” he said.
Two children were among seven people killed this week when a nursery in Kharkiv was directly hit by Russian bombing. Footage from the scene showed firefighters rescuing young children from a site that had been full with several dozen children only a few minutes earlier.
- Guardian
