Zelensky presses US military chiefs to allow Ukraine to strike deeper in Russia

He met the military chiefs and more than 50 partner nations on Friday to press for more weapons support as Washington announced it would provide another 250 million dollars (£190 million) in security assistance to Kyiv.

His comments came as Ukraine continues to press its case that without long-range strikes and bolstered air defences, it faces a bleak winter.

The meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group was taking place during a dynamic moment in Ukraine’s fight against Russia, as it conducts its first offensive operations of the war while facing a significant threat from Russian forces near a key hub in the Donbas.

It also comes days after Russia launched a deadly airstrike against a Ukrainian military training centre that killed more than 50 and wounded hundreds.

Then on Friday Russia fired five ballistic missiles at the city of Pavlohrad in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, injuring at least 50 people, regional governor Serhii Lysak said. Three of those injured in the daylight attack were children aged four, nine and 11 years old, he said.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the meeting of the leaders was taking place during a dynamic moment in Ukraine’s fight against Russia.

It was Mr Zelensky’s first time to come to the Ramstein Air Base to address the group, and he used the public appearance to stress that, in his view, what is needed most now is for the US and the West to allow him to use the weapons they provided to strike deeper inside Russia, something the US has not supported out of concern it would further escalate the war.

“We need to have this long-range capability, not only on the divided territory of Ukraine, but also on the Russian territory, so that Russia is motivated to seek peace,” Mr Zelensky told the members.

“We need to make Russian cities and even Russian soldiers think about what they need: peace or Putin.”

To date, the US has been reluctant to further loosen restrictions on the long-range missiles it does provide, out of concerns that it could further escalate the conflict.

However, Canadian defence minister Bill Blair said Mr Zelensky convinced him to support the long-range strike use and that he hopes the other Western allies also get behind the request. Canada does not have long-range munitions it could provide on its own, Mr Blair said.

“One of the things President Zelensky and his ministers have made very clear to us is that they are suffering significant attacks from air bases and military installations located within Russia,” Mr Blair said.

“We support their request for permission, but it’s still a decision of our allies.”

Ukraine is now in the midst of its first offensive operations of the war while facing a significant threat from Russian forces near a key hub in the Donbas, and Kyiv is seeing that its time is running short to shore up ongoing military support before the US presidential election in November.

Mr Zelensky said Ukraine’s surprise assault inside Russia’s Kursk region has led to the capture of about 1,300 square kilometres (500 square miles) of Russian territory and killed or injured about 6,000 Russian soldiers.

But it has not drawn President Vladimir Putin’s focus away from taking the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, which provides critical rail and supply links for the Ukrainian army. Losing Pokrovsk could put additional Ukrainian cities at risk.

While Kursk has put Russia on the defensive, “we know Putin’s malice runs deep” Mr Austin cautioned in prepared remarks to the media before the Ukraine Defence Contact Group met. Moscow is pressing on, especially around Pokrovsk, Mr Austin said.

Mr Zelensky also said systems that were promised already have been too slow to arrive.

“The number of air defence systems that have not yet been delivered is significant,” he said.

The meeting on Friday was expected to focus on resourcing more air defence and artillery supplies and shoring up gains on expanding Ukraine’s own defence industrial base, to put it on more solid footing as the final days of Joe Biden’s US presidency approach.

Mr Zelensky said he would continue to press for the long-range strike capability.

“Strong long-range decisions by partners are needed to bring the just peace we seek closer,” he said on Friday on Telegram.

Western partner nations were working with Ukraine to source a substitute missile for its Soviet-era S-300 air defence systems, Mr Austin said.

The US is also focused on resourcing a variety of air-to-ground missiles that the newly delivered F-16 fighter jets can carry, including the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, which could give Ukraine a longer-range cruise missile option, said Bill LaPlante, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer, who spoke to reporters travelling with Mr Austin.

No decisions on the munition have been made, Mr LaPlante said, noting that policymakers would still have to decide whether to give Ukraine the longer-range capability.

“I would just put JASSM in that category, it’s something that is always being looked at,” Mr LaPlante said. “Anything that’s an air-to-ground weapon is always being looked at.”

For the past two years, members of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group have met to resource Ukraine’s mammoth artillery and air defence needs, ranging from hundreds of millions of rounds of small arms ammunition to some of the West’s most sophisticated air defence systems, and now fighter jets.

The request this month was more of the same but different in that it was in person, and followed a similar in-person visit on Thursday in Kyiv by Mr Biden’s deputy national security adviser Jon Finer as Mr Zelensky shores up US support before the administration changes.

Since 2022, the member nations together have provided about 106 billion dollars (£80.5 billion) in security assistance to Ukraine. The US has provided more than 56 billion dollars (£42.5 billion) of that total.

The German government said Chancellor Olaf Scholz plans to meet Mr Zelensky in Frankfurt on Friday afternoon.

In Ukraine on Friday, thousands of mourners gathered for funeral services in the western city of Lviv for victims of a Russian missile attack that killed seven people, including a mother and her three daughters.

Yaroslav Bazylevych, whose wife, Yevgenia, 43, and daughters Emilia, 7, Daryna, 18, and Yaryna, 21, were killed, attended the funeral at the Garrison Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul.

The pre-dawn blasts earlier this week in the historic centre of the city also injured dozens of civilians.