LONDON (AP) – Volodymyr Zelenskyy left for Europe with a long shopping list. Ukraine’s president will go home with much of what he wanted, though not the Western fighter jets he aims to defend against Russian airstrikes.
European leaders promised Zelenskyy an arsenal of missiles, tanks and drones during a three-day visit to Italy, the Vatican, Germany, France and the UK aimed at replenishing Ukraine’s depleted arms supplies before ‘a long-awaited spring offensive with the aim of reversing. the tide of war
The trip also sought to bolster long-term European political and military support, to ensure that Ukraine can hold onto any ground it regains and press for a favorable peace.
“They have to show … that they are in this conflict for the long term and that they are able to continue to sustain this effort,” said Justin Crump, a former British tank commander who runs the security consultancy Sibylline. “It won’t be a one-shot.”
Zelenskyy’s forceful international diplomacy during 15 months of war has persuaded Ukraine’s Western allies to send increasingly powerful weapons, from German Leopard tanks to US Patriot missile systems and Storm Shadow cruise missiles from the Kingdom united
Making his case to European leaders in person shows Zelenskyy’s growing confidence to travel abroad. It’s also an attempt to get its “ducks in a row” as Ukraine prepares a push to retake territory seized by Russia, said Patrick Bury, a security professor at the University of Bath.
Bury said that if Ukraine launches an offensive “and it doesn’t go well, there could be a drop in support and more pressure to negotiate. I think he’s just trying to stick together for as long as possible with as much support as he can from the West.”
On Monday, Britain pledged hundreds more air defense missiles, as well as attack drones with a range of more than 200 kilometers (120 miles).
France, where Ukraine’s leader met President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday, said it would supply Ukraine with dozens of light tanks and armored vehicles, along with unspecified air defense systems.
Zelenskyy also visited Germany for talks with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose initial reluctance to provide Ukraine with lethal weapons was a source of frustration in Kiev. Now, Germany has become one of the main suppliers of weapons to Ukraine, including battle tanks and the sophisticated IRIS-T SLM air defense system.
During Zelenskyy’s visit, Germany announced another 2.7 billion euros ($3 billion) of equipment, including tanks, anti-aircraft systems and ammunition.
But Zelensky’s aim to form an international “fighter coalition” to supply aircraft to Ukraine has run afoul of NATO’s concerns about increasing the alliance’s role in the war. Ukraine wants US-made F-16s to complement its Soviet-era jets, but Washington has resisted calls to send them.
“We want to create a coalition of aircraft and I am very positive about it,” Zelenskyy said on Monday after meeting British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. But, he added, “We need to work on it a little more.”
Sunak said Britain wants to help Ukraine acquire aircraft, but “it’s not a simple thing”.
The UK does not have any F-16s, but says it will give Ukrainian pilots basic training in standard Western aircraft from this summer.
German Scholz was evasive when asked about the planes, referring instead to the anti-aircraft system it has provided to Kiev.
“That’s what we’re focusing on now as Germany,” he said.
The flurry of announcements from European capitals is partly diplomatic theatre. Ukraine receives a steady flow of equipment from the West, and some of the weapons announced this week may have already been on their way. Zelenskyy’s trip was about securing long-term supplies as well as the impending offensive.
“They should be able to carry out the offensive with what they already have, but this is not enough to sustain it in the long term,” said retired French Vice Admiral Michel Olhagaray, former head of France’s Center for Advanced Military Studies . “And they will need the long term to crack the Russians.”
Zelenskyy began his European tour on Saturday in Rome, where he received a strong commitment from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and a more nuanced and less welcoming message from Pope Francis.
Calling Zelenskyy his friend and emphasizing their personal relationship, Meloni promised to provide Ukraine with everything it needs to win the war and said any compromise to accept an “unjust peace” was unacceptable for Ukraine and Italy, and dangerous for the rest of Europe.
“We cannot call something ‘peace’ that can resemble an invasion,” he told reporters, as Zelenskyy nodded in agreement.
Zelenskyy also visited the Vatican to meet with Pope Francis, who stressed the need for “gestures of humanity” towards the most vulnerable and innocent victims of the conflict.
While Francis has often prayed for the “martyred” Ukrainian people, he has also mourned the Russian mothers who have lost their children. The equivalence, and Francis’ reluctance to condemn Russia, is part of the Vatican’s tradition of neutrality in conflicts.
Zelenskyy made it clear that he did not appreciate Francis’ emphasis on both Russian and Ukrainian victims of the war, tweeting: “there can be no equality between the victim and the aggressor.”
It was a reminder that Ukraine is facing a political and military battle. In Africa and Asia, especially, many are reluctant to take sides in what is seen as a European regional conflict.
François Heisbourg, a French defense and security analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said Zelenskyy’s European trip was part of an “arms shopping tour, that’s clear enough, and it seems it works great.”
“But the other aspect, of course, is what you would call setting the political battleground,” he said. “Politics is no less important to Zelensky than purely military things.”
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Associated Press writers John Leicester in Paris, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Nicole Winfield in Rome and Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.
