IRIA News

To replenish Kyiv’s arsenal for the anticipated counteroffensive against Russian forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Europe with a long shopping list. He gathered additional military support from Italy, France, Germany, and Britain.

During Zelenskyy’s three-day trip to European, the Western leaders promised additional military support for Ukraine in the form of tanks, missiles, and drones. Zelenskyy started his trip on May 13, 2023, in Italy where he first visited Rome to meet the Pope and Italian leadership. After concluding a successful trip in Italy Zelenskyy flew on a German Luftwaffe jet that brought him to Berlin from Rome.

Visit to Germany

Earlier this week, Berlin announced one of its largest military aid packages for Ukraine. Germany would send $2.9 billion worth of weapons and equipment to Kyiv in the coming months. The equipment includes 20 more Marder infantry fighting vehicles, 30 Leopard-1 tanks, and four IRIS-T-SLM air defense systems.

Zelenskyy arrived in Berlin on May 14, and he announced his arrival with a short tweet saying, “Already in Berlin. Weapons. Powerful package. Air defense. Reconstruction. EU. NATO. Security.” At the news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin, Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s goal is to free the territories within its internationally recognized borders.

“We are preparing a counterattack for the illegally occupied areas based on our constitutionally defined legitimate borders, which are recognized internationally,” Zelenskyy said.

Surprise trip to France

Zelenskyy’s previously unscheduled meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris was filled with promises of military support and humanitarian aid. France pledged to provide armor vehicles, light tanks, training for Ukrainian troops, and other military assistance on a fast track to help Kyiv gear up for its counteroffensive.

Macron said that France would organize training for at least 2000 Ukrainian soldiers in France while an additional 4000 soldiers would be trained in Poland this year. Macron released a statement regarding the meeting, highlighting that Paris upholds its unwavering support for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity. He promised that political, economic, humanitarian, and military aid will continue “for as long as necessary.”

While in France, the Ukrainian President tweeted that “With each visit, Ukraine’s defense and offensive capabilities are expanding. The ties with Europe are getting stronger, and the pressure on Russia is growing.” After completing his short trip to France, Zelenskyy dispatched to Germany to meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Stopover in the UK

Zelenskyy made another stopover in the UK before heading back to Ukraine. The Ukrainian President and the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, met the British Prime Minister’s country estate of Chequers outside London.

The Ukrainian leader landed at Chequers aboard a helicopter Sunak welcome him. Zelenskyy thanks Britain for the support it had provided to Ukraine so far. “We’re thankful from all our hearts, from Ukrainians, from our soldiers, we are thankful,” Zelenskyy told Sunak. “And this is a privilege to be here.”

Britain has become the first country to supply long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine. The delivery of the Storm Shadow missiles was announced by British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, two days before Zelenskyy’s trip to Europe.  During his speech at the House of Commons, Wallace said that the missiles would “allow Ukraine to push back Russian forces based on Ukrainian sovereign territory” and give Ukraine the “best chance” to themselves.

Up till now, Kyiv has been relying mostly upon the U.S.-supplied HIMARS missiles have a strike range of 80 kilometers, with recently received Storm Shadow cruise missiles, Ukrainian forces can hit far-away Russian targets up to 200 kilometers, with higher accuracy.

Despite the speculations, a spokesman to the British Prime Minister said Britain so far has no plans to send fighter jets to Ukraine, but the country will start to train Ukrainian pilots this summer.

Great Britain – meeting with @RishiSunak. Spoke about defense and very important British leadership in military coalitions.

I am grateful to the 🇬🇧 for the decision to train our pilots. We are creating a coalition to train pilots on modern Western aircraft.

We continue our work… pic.twitter.com/BFznW8dNhf

— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) May 15, 2023

Earlier on May 13, Zelenskyy also visited Vatican City to meet Pope Francis and Rome to conduct high-level meetings with the Italian leadership. During his meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the two leaders discussed cooperation in the security and defense fields.