(Bloomberg) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reinforced his plea for allies to accelerate weapons deliveries to help halt Russian advances as he met with defense ministers in Germany.
“We need to force Russia to seek peace,” Zelenskiy said in his first in-person appearance at the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base in southwest Germany. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced a $250 million security package.
The Ukrainian leader repeated his message that deliveries need to reach the front line urgently as Moscow’s troops make grinding advances in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, where Zelenskiy said Russian President Vladimir Putin is keeping his most combat-ready units.
Zelenskiy also defended his military’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region last month, which took some NATO allies off guard. The operation helps to eliminate the threat of a new Russian offensive in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, he said. Austin backed the incursion.
“The Kremlin’s army of aggression is now on the defensive on its own turf,” the US defense chief said. Ukraine’s partners are “laser-focused” on Kyiv’s priority needs, he said alongside Zelenskiy.
Austin said massive losses haven’t prevented the Kremlin from pressing forward with its offensive in the east, especially around the strategic city of Pokrovsk, while repositioning its troops in Kursk.
Zelenskiy reiterated that the world has enough air defense systems available to help Ukraine — and said his country needs a much larger fleet of F-16 jets. The Ukrainian leader also repeated his call for long-range weapons, even as he saved concrete requests for the non-public part of the meeting.
Zelenskiy is slated to meet with with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Defense Minister Boris Pistorius during the visit. He’s then due to fly on to an international forum in Italy, where he is planning to meet Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
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