Ukraine has given the US a list for the purchase of weapons, including Patriot Antiarea Defense systems, according to the Ukrainian President, Volodimir Zelenski.
In a meeting with local media, the president explained that during the recent Summit of the G7 in Canada, the Vice Prime Minister and head of Economics, Yulia Sviridenko, delivered the secretary of the US Treasury, Scott Besent, the list, next to the head of the cabinet of Zelenski, Andrí Yermak.
She and Yermak talked about the next steps of the mineral agreement signed between Ukraine and the US, “and they gave Besent exactly the package of weapons we need.”
“We are waiting for an answer. There is a very large amount. This includes patriot systems,” Zelenski revealed, who said he is willing to find the funds to pay for the weapons.
Ukraine has long insisted on the need to have more patriot anti -aircraft systems, but several countries claim that they cannot leave that country more without neglecting their own protection or that of NATO.
The German Defense Minister, Boris Pistorius, declared that Germany has already given Ukraine a quarter of its current Patriot antialea defense systems and cannot give more, but Berlin is looking for an opportunity to buy such systems to partners with their subsequent transfer to Ukraine.
Zelenski said that, if he can meet on the banks of the NATO summit with the US president Donald Trump, I would like to address the purchase of weapons requested. The president stressed that he also intends to address with Trump the issue of sanctions to Russia that the latter still avoids, as well as how to “insufflate new life to the diplomatic path.”
In his opinion, Russia maintains only the dialogue in Istanbul alive after two rounds that had as a more tangible result the exchange of prisoners and fallen, to prevent Trump from pressing the Kremlin with more sanctions. “We need greater certainty and greater pressure in the world about (Russian president, Vladimir) Putin. It is necessary to advance diplomacy,” Zelenski said.
However, plans to treat the purchase of weapons with Trump during the G7 summit in Canada were interrupted when the US president left the event earlier than expected, as reported by the media . “Trump is also avoiding meeting with Zelenski at the NATO summit in The Hague, focusing on other priorities such as the increase in defense expenditure and tensions in the Middle East,” they stressed.
The most recent American aid package, of 500 million dollars, was announced in January under the Biden administration, and Ukraine would have received 90% of the previously assigned weapons in March.
