A meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine's Defence has begun in Germany at Ramstein Air Force Base. For the first time, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy personally participates, and, as always, the US Secretary of Defence chairs the meeting. In his welcoming remarks, Lloyd Austin said that Ukrainians inspire the whole world.
President Zelenskyy thanked the United States for its leadership in the format. He also thanked the German Minister of Defence.
He pointed out that there is a great need in Pokrovsk and Toretsk to feel the strength of support from international allies. He also pointed out that today marks exactly one month since the start of the Defence Forces' offensive in the Kursk Region, from which Vladimir Putin was preparing a new attack to spread the war to an even larger area.
"Russians were preparing to launch a new offensive on Sumy," he said.
According to him, the Defence Forces now control more than 1,300 kilometres in the Kursk Region, which includes more than a hundred settlements.
"Much of this territory was abandoned by Russian troops - they fled when they saw our troops approaching. Of course, a significant part was taken under control in the fighting. As of now, during the first month of our operation, Russian troops have lost approximately 6,000 soldiers killed and wounded in the Kursk Region alone," he said.
The president believes that due to the actions of the Ukrainian army, there is no risk of an offensive on Sumy now. At the same time, Russia has sent its best-trained troops to occupy Donetsk Region.
Zelenskyy stressed that Russia does not want peace, so it is necessary to put pressure on it to make its troops choose peace over war. He also emphasised that the defenders need more weapons to drive out Russian troops.
The president also named the main needs of Ukraine:
- Every aid package must be delivered quickly to the battlefield. The fight in Donetsk Region, and thus the fight in general, depends on it
- the number of air defence systems that have been promised and not yet delivered is significant, so the deliveries must be completed
- Ukraine is already working effectively with F-16s, but there are not enough of them
- long-range weapons have enabled very important operations, in particular in Crimea, but there is a shortage of ATCAMS missiles. They are not enough to strike even the occupied territory
- Ukraine is ready to produce more of its own weapons, but investments are needed