Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told military allies meeting Friday in Germany that his country needs the long-range capability to strike deep inside Russian territory “so that Russia is motivated to seek peace.”
“We need to make Russian cities, and even Russian soldiers, think about what they need: peace or Putin,” Zelenskyy told members of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a U.S.-led coalition of more than 50 nations that coordinates military support for Ukraine.
It marked the first time that the Ukrainian president had traveled to Ramstein Air Base in Germany to meet with the group.
When asked by reporters about Zelenskyy’s request for U.S. permission to use American-supplied weapons to attack targets farther into Russian territory.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said there is no single capability that will be decisive in this war.
“Ukraine has a pretty significant capability of its own to address targets that are well beyond the range of ATACMS, or even Storm Shadow for that matter,” he said.
He said that he thinks the conflict between Russia and Ukraine will ultimately be “resolved at a negotiating table, but when that point comes is hard to predict.”
Canadian Defense Minister Bill Blair, said the coalition should support what he called Zelenskyy’s “very reasonable” request for more means to strike more long-range targets inside Russia.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told reporters he was “disappointed” with the slow delivery time for the Patriot missile defense systems that were promised for Ukraine at a NATO summit in July.
Austin announced a new U.S. military aid package for Ukraine valued at $250 million that includes more ammunition for HIMARS and armored personnel carriers
