KYIV: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is in New York for the meeting of world officials at the United Nations, held talks on the sidelines with German, Indian and Japan leaders on Monday trying to shore up support for Kyiv’s war efforts.
“We talked about how to make a just peace closer,” Zelensky said on his Telegram messaging app after meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “The main thing is to maintain unity.”
Germany has been one of most significant backers in Europe of Kyiv’s defensive fight against Russia.
The full-scale Russia invasion of Ukraine, or “special military operation” as Moscow calls it, began in Feb 2022 and has killed thousands of people, uprooted millions more and turned Ukrainian towns and cities into rubble.
After the UN General Assembly sessions, Zelensky is to travel later in the week to Washington to present his “victory plan“ and influence White House policy on the war no matter who wins the US election on Nov. 5.
Zelensky said that he also met with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“We are dynamically developing our relations,” he said on the Telegram after the meeting.
India-Russia relations
Reuters reported earlier this month that artillery shells sold by Indian arms makers were diverted by European customers to Ukraine and New Delhi did not intervene to stop the trade despite protests from Moscow.
India has warm ties with Russia, its primary arms supplier for decades, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has refused to join the Western-led sanctions regime against Moscow.
Zelensky also held talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Japan’s energy aid to Kyiv.
“Restoring our energy supply after Russian shelling and preparing for winter are tasks we are actively working on now,” Zelensky said in a post on the Telegram messaging app. “Together with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, we discussed the situation in the energy sector.”
Japan has been one of several nations sending support, including $4.5 billion this year, according to the Japanese foreign ministry website.
Japan has provided Kyiv with equipment for restoration work and increasing the capacity of the Ukrainian power system to get through winter amidst Russia’s continued strikes on energy infrastructure.
Ukraine’s electricity supply shortfall could reach about a third of expected peak demand amid the attacks and the expiry of a gas supply contract at the end of this year, the International Energy Agency said in a report last week.
Zelensky holds flurry of bilateral meetings at UN to shore up support for Ukraine
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Zelensky holds flurry of bilateral meetings at UN to shore up support for Ukraine
- Zelensky is to travel later in the week to Washington to present his “victory plan“
Zelensky says Ukrainian air force needs to improve as Russian drone barrages take a toll
- Zelensky said Friday he had discussed with his defense minister and the air force commander what new air defense measures Ukraine needs to counter the Russian barrages
- Russia fired 328 drones and seven missiles at Ukraine overnight and in the early morning
KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday described the performance of the air force in parts of the country as “unsatisfactory,” and said that steps are being taken to improve the response to large-scale Russian drone barrages of civilian areas.
The repeated Russian aerial assaults have in recent months focused on Ukraine’s power grid, causing blackouts and disrupting the heating and water supply for families during a bitterly cold winter.
With the war about to enter its fifth year later this month following Russia’s all-out invasion of its neighbor, there is no sign of a breakthrough in US-led peace efforts following the latest talks this week.
Further US-brokered meetings between Russian and Ukrainian delegations are planned “in the near future, likely in the United States,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky said Friday he had discussed with his defense minister and the air force commander what new air defense measures Ukraine needs to counter the Russian barrages. He didn’t elaborate on what would be done.
Russia fired 328 drones and seven missiles at Ukraine overnight and in the early morning, the air force said, claiming that air defenses shot down 297 drones.
One person was killed and two others were injured in an overnight Russian attack using drones and powerful glide bombs on the central Dnipropetrovsk region, according to the head of the regional military administration, Oleksandr Hanzha.
A Russian aerial attack on the southern Zaporizhzhia region during early daylight hours injured eight people and damaged 18 apartment blocks, according to regional military administration head Ivan Fedorov.
A dog shelter in the regional capital was also struck, killing 13 dogs, Zaporizhzhia City Council Secretary Rehina Kharchenko said.
Some dogs were rushed to a veterinary clinic, but they could not be saved, she said. Seven other animals were injured and are receiving treatment.
Amid icy conditions in Kyiv, more than 1,200 residential buildings in multiple districts of the capital have had no heating for days due to the Russian bombardment of the power grid, according to Zelensky.
The UK defense ministry said Friday that Ukraine’s electricity network “is experiencing its most acute crisis of the winter.”
Mykola Tromza, an 81-year-old pensioner in Kyiv, said he has had his power restored, but recently went without heating and water at home for a week.
“I touched my nose and by God, it was like an icicle,” Tromza said. He said he ran up and down to keep warm.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 38 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 26 over the Bryansk region.
Bryansk Gov. Alexander Bogomaz said the attack briefly cut power to several villages in the region.
Another Ukrainian nighttime strike damaged power facilities in the Russian city of Belgorod, disrupting electricity distribution, Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
Local reports said that Ukrainian missiles hit a power plant and an electrical substation, cutting power to parts of the city.
Fierce fighting has also continued on the front line despite the frigid temperatures.
Ukraine’s Commander in Chief, Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, said the front line now measures about 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) in length along eastern and southern parts of Ukraine.
The increasing technological improvements to drones on both sides mean that the so-called “kill zone” where troops are in greatest danger is now up to 20 kilometers (12 miles) deep, he told reporters on Thursday in comments embargoed until Friday.
