Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky today called on his country's Western allies to ignore the "red lines" to Moscow and to allow Kiev to use long-range weapons for strikes on Russian territory, and Washington promised another 250 million dollars for weapons for Kiev, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
Zelensky participated for the first time in the US-organized regular meeting of Ukraine's allies at the Ramstein air base. in Germany and tried to present the long-range strike authorization as another way to pressure Russia to end the two-and-a-half-year-old invasion.
It comes at a risky time for Ukrainian forces, who have launched a surprise offensive in Russia's Kursk region, even as Russian forces have focused all their efforts on capturing the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, a key logistical hub for Kiev's military effort , notes Reuters.
"Yes, we need to have these long-range capabilities not only on the occupied territory of Ukraine, but also on Russian territory, so that Russia is motivated to seek peace," Zelensky said.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin pointed to the Kursk offensive as an example of how Ukraine is working to seize the initiative on the battlefield. "The Kremlin's aggressive army is now on the defensive in its own territory," Austin said.
However, Austin's remarks appeared to be more focused on broader Western efforts to support Ukraine's campaign to push Russian forces out of its territory, including the announcement of $250 million more in security aid.
"(Russian President Vladimir) Putin harbors a deep grudge. Moscow continues its offensive in the eastern part of Ukraine, especially in the Pokrovsk region,", Austin said.
"Putin transfers his troops to Kursk. And the Kremlin continues to bomb Ukrainian cities and attack the Ukrainian civilian population," he added.
Austin listed statistics highlighting the number of military casualties of Russian forces, according to which more than 350,000 Russian soldiers were killed or wounded. He said Ukrainian forces had sunk, destroyed or damaged 32 Russian naval vessels and pushed the Russian Black Sea Fleet further east.
Zelensky said about 6,000 Russian soldiers were killed or wounded in Ukraine's Kursk offensive.
"Today we control a territory of more than 1,300 square kilometers in the Kursk region, and this includes 100 settlements," Zelensky said, adding that a large part of this territory has been abandoned by Russian troops.
"They just ran away when they saw our forces approaching," he said.
However, he said Moscow was shelling cities across Ukraine with missiles and drones, some of the largest attacks since the start of the war, and Zelensky called on representatives of the dozens of countries participating in the Ramstein talks to fulfill their promises to provide Kiev with more means to prevent airstrikes.
"The number of air defense systems that have not yet been delivered is significant," the Ukrainian president said.
Zelensky is expected to travel to the US this month, where he hopes to present a "plan for victory" to President Joe Biden. However, as the war continues and the incursion into Kursk Oblast has so far failed to achieve a transfer of Russian forces from inside Ukraine, it is unclear whether the move will pay off, Reuters points out.
Russian forces control 18% of the territory of Ukraine and are gradually advancing in the eastern part of the country after the failure of Kiev's counter-offensive in 2023.
According to the Kremlin, there are currently no conditions for conducting peace negotiations with Ukraine.