(L-R) U.S. Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov attend a Ukraine Defence Contact Group assembly on September 6, 2024 on the U.S. air base in Ramstein, southwestern Germany.
| Photograph Credit score: AFP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met Friday with prime United States navy leaders and greater than 50 accomplice nations in Germany to press for extra weapons assist Friday as Washington introduced it might present one other $250 million in safety help to Kyiv.

U.S. Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin mentioned the assembly of the leaders was going down throughout a dynamic second in Ukraine’s struggle towards Russia, because it conducts its first offensive operations of the war whereas going through a major risk from Russian forces close to a key hub within the Donbas.

To this point the surprise assault inside Russia’s Kursk territory has not drawn away President Vladimir Putin’s focus from taking the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, which supplies vital rail and provide hyperlinks for the Ukrainian military. Shedding Pokrovsk may put further Ukrainian cities in danger.

Whereas Kursk has put Russia on the defensive, “we all know Putin’s malice runs deep,” Mr. Austin cautioned in ready remarks to the media earlier than the Ukraine Protection Contact Group met. Moscow is urgent on, particularly round Pokrovsk, Mr. Austin mentioned.

Current lethal airstrikes by Russia have renewed Mr. Zelensky’s requires the U.S. to additional loosen restrictions and acquire even larger Western capabilities to strike deeper inside Russia. Nevertheless, the assembly Friday was anticipated to concentrate on resourcing extra air protection and artillery provides and shoring up beneficial properties on increasing Ukraine’s personal protection industrial base, to place it on extra strong footing as the ultimate days of Joe Biden’s U.S. presidency wind down.

Mr. Zelensky mentioned he would proceed to press for the long-range strike functionality. “Sturdy long-range choices by companions are wanted to carry the simply peace we search nearer,” Mr. Zelensky mentioned Friday on Telegram.

Western accomplice nations have been working with Ukraine to supply a substitute missile for its Soviet-era S-300 air protection programs, Mr. Austin mentioned.

The U.S. can be targeted on resourcing quite a lot of air-to-ground missiles that the newly delivered F-16 fighter jets can carry, together with the Joint Air-to-Floor Standoff Missile, which may give Ukraine a longer-range cruise missile choice, mentioned Invoice LaPlante, the Pentagon’s prime weapons purchaser, who spoke to reporters touring with Mr. Austin.

No choices on the munition have been made, LaPlante mentioned, noting that policymakers would nonetheless must resolve whether or not to present Ukraine the longer-range functionality.

“I’d simply put JASSM in that class, it’s one thing that’s at all times being checked out,” LaPlante mentioned. “Something that’s an air-to-ground weapon is at all times being checked out.”

For the previous two years, members of the Ukraine Protection Contact Group have met to useful resource Ukraine’s mammoth artillery and air protection wants, starting from lots of of tens of millions of rounds of small arms ammunition to a number of the West’s most subtle air protection programs, and now fighter jets. The ask this month was extra of the identical — however completely different in that it was in individual, and adopted an analogous in-person go to Thursday in Kyiv by Biden’s Deputy Nationwide Safety Advisor Jon Finer as Mr. Zelensky shores up U.S. assist earlier than the administration modifications.

Since 2022, the member nations collectively have offered about $106 billion in safety help to Ukraine. The U.S. has offered greater than $56 billion of that whole.

The German authorities mentioned Chancellor Olaf Scholz plans to fulfill Mr. Zelensky in Frankfurt on Friday afternoon.