RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany: President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed on Friday to Ukraine’s backers for additional weapons as Kyiv faces advancing Russian forces in the east and devastating strikes by Moscow.
The Ukrainian leader pressed his nation’s case to allies meeting at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where Washington unveiled a new $250 million in military aid.
“We need more weapons to drive Russian forces off our land,” said Zelensky, who also met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and was to head to Italy for talks.
The gathering comes as Moscow’s forces advance in the Donbas region, with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday declaring that capturing the eastern area was his “primary objective” in the conflict.
Zelensky urged Kyiv’s supporters to follow through on previous commitments, saying: “The number of air defense systems that have not been delivered is significant.”
The Ukrainian leader again called for restrictions to be lifted on the use of long-range Western weapons to hit targets inside Russia.
“We need to have this long-range capability, not only on the occupied territory of Ukraine, but also on the Russian territory,” Zelensky said.
In Italy, Zelensky is due to hold talks with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and attend The European House-Ambrosetti forum in Cernobbio, on Lake Como.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban — who upset his EU counterparts and Zelensky by meeting Putin in Moscow in July — is also attending the three-day economic forum.
Italy has strongly supported Ukraine and has sent weapons to help it defend itself against Russian forces, while insisting these must only be used on Ukrainian soil.
At the meeting at the US base in Germany, US defense chief Lloyd Austin announced that Washington will provide $250 million in new military aid for Ukraine.
The package “will surge in more capabilities to meet Ukraine’s evolving requirements,” Austin told the meeting.
The assistance is expected to include ammunition for HIMARS precision rocket launchers, artillery rounds, anti-tank and anti-air weapons, a US defense official said on condition of anonymity.
The talks in Germany, with representatives from some 50 nations, were to focus on areas including bolstering Ukraine’s air defenses and encouraging allies to boost their defense industries, Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder said ahead of the meeting.
Since the start of Russia’s offensive in February 2022 when it failed to seize the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Moscow has adapted its aims, concentrating instead on trying to conquer eastern Ukraine.
While Ukraine’s surprise push into Russia’s Kursk region last month caught Russian forces off-guard, Putin stressed that the move had failed to slow Moscow’s advance.
Ukraine on Friday claimed to have recaptured a part of the eastern Ukrainian town of New York, in the first success for Kyiv on this part of the front for months.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, speaking in Oslo Friday, said Ukraine needs more military support and that the “quickest way to end this war is to provide weapons to Ukraine.”
“Putin must realize that he cannot win on the battlefield, but must accept a just and lasting peace where Ukraine prevails as a sovereign and independent nation,” he said.
The United States has been Ukraine’s biggest backer during the conflict, providing military aid worth more than $55 billion (50 billion euros) since February 2022.
But uncertainty looms over the future of that funding as a US election in November could see Ukraine-skeptic Donald Trump back in the White House.
Germany — Ukraine’s second-biggest backer — has also come under pressure domestically over its aid for Kyiv, which has been at the center of a protracted row over the 2025 budget.
German officials have repeatedly pushed back at criticism over a planned reduction in financial support next year.
After talks with Zelensky in Frankfurt Friday, Scholz posted on X that “Germany is and will remain the strongest supporter of Ukraine in Europe.”
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius also announced on the sidelines of the meeting that his country would provide 12 artillery pieces valued at 150 million euros to Ukraine.
“I’m grateful to Germany, its government, and its people for all their support,” Zelensky said in a social media post after meeting with Pistorius.
Zelensky appeals for weapons as Russia advances
https://arab.news/5vujz
Zelensky appeals for weapons as Russia advances
- “We need more weapons to drive Russian forces off our land,” said Zelensky
- The Ukrainian leader again called for restrictions to be lifted on the use of long-range Western weapons to hit targets inside Russia
Sri Lanka hospital releases 22 rescued Iranian sailors
- Sri Lankan authorities said the survivors from the Dena were being handled according to international humanitarian law
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka discharged from hospital 22 Iranian sailors who were plucked from life rafts after their warship was sunk by a US submarine, officials said Sunday.
The sailors were treated at Karapitiya Hospital in the southern port city of Galle since Wednesday after the IRIS Dena was torpedoed just outside Sri Lanka’s territorial waters.
“Another 10 are still undergoing treatment,” a medical officer at the hospital told AFP.
He said the bodies of 84 Iranians retrieved from the Indian Ocean were also at the hospital.
Those discharged from hospital overnight had been taken to a beach resort in the same district.
Sri Lankan authorities said the survivors from the Dena were being handled according to international humanitarian law, and the government had contacted the International Committee of the Red Cross for assistance.
The island is also providing safe haven for another 219 Iranian sailors from a second ship, the IRIS Bushehr, that was allowed to berth a day after the Dena was sunk.
Sailors from the Bushehr have been moved to a Sri Lanka Navy camp at Welisara, just north of the capital Colombo, and their ship taken over by Sri Lanka’s navy.
Sri Lanka announced it was taking the Bushehr to the north-eastern port of Trincomalee, but an engine failure and other technical and administrative issues had delayed the movement, a navy spokesman said.
Sri Lanka has denied claims that it was under pressure from Washington not to allow the Iranians to return home, and said Colombo will be guided solely by international law and its own domestic legislation.
A US State Department spokesperson said the disposition of the Bushehr crew and Iranian sailors rescued at sea was up to Sri Lanka.
“The United States, of course, respects and recognizes Sri Lanka’s sovereignty in the handling of this situation,” the spokesperson told AFP in Washington.
India, meanwhile, said Saturday that it had allowed a third Iranian warship, the IRIS Lavan, to dock in one of its ports on “humane” grounds after it too reported engine problems.
The three ships were part of a multi-national fleet review held by India before the war in the Middle East started last week.
“I think it was the humane thing to do, and I think we were guided by that principle,” Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Saturday.
The Lavan docked in the south-west Indian port of Kochi on Wednesday.
“A lot of the people on board were young cadets. They have disembarked and are in a nearby facility,” Jaishankar said.
