Zelenskiy hails ‘powerful support’ for Ukraine at
Moldova summit
Ukrainian president speaks of the importance of
overturning Russia’s air supremacy with Patriot missiles and F-16s
Lisa
O'Carroll in Chișinău
@lisaocarroll
Thu 1 Jun
2023 18.50 BST
Volodymyr
Zelenskiy said he had received “powerful support” from allies attending a
summit in Moldova as it emerged F-16 fighter jets could be made available to
Ukraine within six months.
Closing the
conference of 46 European leaders held at a castle 12 miles (19km) from the
border with Ukraine, the country’s president spoke of the importance of
overturning Russian’s supremacy in the air with a “sky shield” involving a
combination of Patriot missiles and F-16s.
He also won
support from Rishi Sunak in his battle for accelerated membership of Nato.
“Why
Patriots? Because Patriots have shown the world they can take down any kind of
Russian missiles. Our proposal is to build a sky shield over the European
continent. It’s important to build it for the whole of Europe, starting with
our territory,” he told reporters at the European political summit in Chișinău.
After an
11-year-old and her mother and another woman were killed in overnight missile
attacks on Kyiv, Zelenskiy said the “protection of our skies” was vital because
it would first and foremost protect the people of Ukraine and “our children”.
Several
countries, including the UK, Denmark, Poland, the Netherlands and Belgium, have
said they want to help procure F-16s for Ukraine. The US president, Joe Biden,
endorsed training programmes last month for Ukrainian pilots on F-16s, but the
training will take months to complete and western countries have not yet said
they will supply the jets.
Senior
sources involved in the F-16 coalition said the jets could be operational in
six months’ time and be useful during the war or as a stabilising factor in a
postwar scenario.
The Dutch
and Polish prime ministers progressed the timeline for delivery of the planes
during a roundtable discussion that also included their Danish, Belgian,
Norwegian and Swedish counterparts.
The Polish
prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said the meeting had gone very well. “We
agreed to train Ukrainian pilots. Of course the UK does not have F-16s, but you
have fighter jets and Rishi Sunak agreed to participate in the training
exercise for Ukrainian pilots, training also for the logistics around these
F-16s, the maintenance, introducing them to the Ukrainian aircraft system. We
all agreed the next steps.”
Russia has
said that providing Ukraine with F-16s would be a “colossal risk” for western
nations.
The Moldova
conference gave Zelenskiy an opportunity to see most of his main allies in one
afternoon after he drove to the summit from an overnight visit to Odesa.
Sunak said:
“I agree with the Nato secretary general that Ukraine’s rightful place is in
Nato and what we are also talking to Ukraine about right now is making sure
they have all the support they need for a successful counteroffensive.”
The British
prime minister said he was proud of the UK’s record in supporting Ukraine. “We
want to make sure we put in place security arrangements for Ukraine for the
long term, so we send a very strong signal to Vladimir Putin that we are not
going anywhere, we are here to stay and we will continue backing Ukraine – not
just now but for years into the future,” he said.
Zelenskiy’s
plea for security guarantees for his country and Moldova came 24 hours after
the French president, Emmanuel Macron, had called on the international
community to make a “tangible and credible” offer.
Such
guarantees were in the rest of the continent’s interest, he said. “We have to
build something between the security provided to Israel and full-fledged
membership,” he said.
Zelenskiy
did not give details of the proposal but said he was in talks with “the US and
other partners about the security guarantees compact”.
“We do we
need them because we are not in Nato. If we were, Russia would not attack us”.
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