The EU’s 27 leaders face mounting pressure to step up efforts to protect Ukraine’s skies from Russian airstrikes, after President Zelenskyy took a jab at Western allies’ “flagging political will” over the weekend.
Speaking ahead of a gathering of leaders in Brussels on Wednesday evening, both German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the Netherlands’ caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte called for urgent steps to provide Kyiv with the air defence systems it needs to fend off the barrage of missiles launched from Russia.
Both leaders suggested the bloc’s countries need to look closely at their stockpiles and consider sending their own air defence systems to Kyiv.
“In view of all the terrible attacks that are being made from the air, you can see that it is necessary to do something,” Scholz explained.
“Everyone has to take a look at their stocks to see if other air defence systems, in particular Patriots, may be dispensed with, because they are now so urgently needed in this specific situation,” the German Chancellor added.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The EU’s 27 leaders face mounting pressure to step up efforts to protect Ukraine’s skies from Russian airstrikes, after President Zelenskyy took a jab at Western allies’ “flagging political will” over the weekend.
Speaking ahead of a gathering of leaders in Brussels on Wednesday evening, both German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the Netherlands’ caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte called for urgent steps to provide Kyiv with the air defence systems it needs to fend off the barrage of missiles launched from Russia.
Despite support for the move among all three Baltic states, NATO has repeatedly dismissed Kyiv’s pleas for a no-fly zone above parts of Ukraine over fears of being pulled into a direct conflict with Russia, a nuclear power.
Allies have supplied Kyiv with sophisticated missile defence systems - including radars, command-and-control technology and interceptors - capable of thwarting Russian strikes, but these have been rapidly exhausted by Russia’s onslaught.
“I am concerned that we are losing the focus on Ukraine,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said ahead of the meeting, slamming the bloc for slow implementation of promised deliveries of weapons to Kyiv.
Speaking alongside her Dutch and Czech counterparts earlier on Wednesday, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that the “format” of the Czech-led ammunition could be replicated for air defence systems.
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