Daily Times

Ukraine will hold a summit with the European Union in Kyiv this week, the government announced Tuesday, as it expressed hope the conference would bring the war-battered nation closer to membership in the bloc almost a year after Russia launched its invasion. Kyiv also announced it expected to receive up to 140 modern battle tanks from its Western allies, while the prospect of more advanced weapons for Ukraine came from the United States.

In his evening address to the nation, President Volodymyr Zelensky said he hoped the Friday summit would reflect a high “level of cooperation and progress” with the 27-member bloc, which Kyiv has long sought to join. “We are waiting for news for Ukraine,” Zelensky said.

The fact the summit is being held in the Ukrainian capital sends “a powerful signal to both partners and enemies”, Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said.

“It is a message that Europe believes in Ukraine’s victory and supports our rapid movement towards EU membership,” he said. Ukraine gained EU candidate status in June last year, several months after Vladimir Putin sent Russian troops rolling across the border.

No details were provided on who would attend the summit from the European Union side. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said a dozen countries had promised more than 100 tanks after Germany and the US signed off on the deliveries last week. “These are Leopard 2, Challenger 2, M1 Abrams,” he added, without specifying a timeline for the deliveries. The decision to supply the weapons came after weeks of diplomatic wrangling and was seen as a breakthrough in the West’s backing for Ukraine in its fight to win back territory from Russian forces. French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu also announced his country would send 12 more Caesar truck-mounted howitzers to Ukraine.

Now Zelensky is urging the West to supply fighter jets and long-range missiles.

US President Joe Biden said Tuesday he would discuss the new requests for advanced weaponry with Zelensky.

“We’re going to talk,” Biden told reporters, speaking the morning after he answered with an emphatic “no” when asked at the White House whether he favoured sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. And The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that a US defence company, General Atomics, had offered to sell Kyiv two Reaper MQ-9 drones for a dollar as it prepares for an expected Russian offensive. Under the deal, Kyiv would have to spend about $10 million to ship the aircraft to Ukraine, and about $8 million each year for maintenance, the Journal said, citing a General Atomics letter to a Ukrainian diplomat. There was no immediate comment on the report from Washington.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was “certainly looking into” providing military assistance to Ukraine, adding in an interview aired Tuesday that he was willing to serve as a mediator if asked. Russia has recently claimed gains in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, with its defence ministry announcing it had “liberated” the village of Blagodatne, north of Bakhmut. Blagodatne lies on a highway leading towards Bakhmut, and its announced capture comes not long after Ukraine conceded it had given up the nearby salt-mining town of Soledar. AFP journalists about 150 kilometres (93 miles) south of Bakhmut heard sporadic shelling coming from Vugledar, which both Moscow and Kyiv have said is seeing an uptick in fighting.