Ramstein Air Base, Germany – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rarely attends security summits organized by Western partners in person, but on Friday, he first visited the Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced at the opening. The latest meeting that “is a critical moment” in the war was triggered by a full-scale invasion of Russia in 2022.
The meeting of the Ukrainian Defense Contact Group came a few days after Zelenskyy’s nation suffered its worst attack this year, when two ballistic missiles were fired. missile slammed into the military academy in Poltava, killing dozens of people and wounding more than 170 others.
The meeting in Germany also came on the heels of more, blistering Russian missile and drone strikes right Ukraine. It came after Ukraine declared fatal F-16 fighter jet crash during the barrage. And came one month after the Ukrainian troops attacked the western Kursk region of Russiaoccupying an area of ​​hundreds of square miles.
“The Kremlin’s aggression is now on defense on its own turf,” Austin said Friday of the Kursk attack.
“This is the land from where Putin is preparing to expand the war to the territory of Ukraine. He is preparing to start a new offense against our city of Sumy,” Zelenskyy said.
The President of Ukraine has said that he controls that the Russian ground has created a buffer zone between the forces of President Vladimir Putin and the territory of Ukraine. But if he hoped the attack would force Putin to withdraw his forces from the battlefield in eastern Ukraine, that has not happened.
“This is a clear choice by Moscow,” Zelenskyy said. “Putin wants more of Ukraine under his control than human security. He doesn’t care about Russian land and people. He just wants to take over our land and many of our cities.”
On an overnight flight from Andrews Air Force Base near Washington to Ramstein, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Charles “CQ” Brown spoke of the Kursk offensive as one part of Ukraine’s war strategy.
“What we can do in Kursk is to be successful there and at the same time protect the main line of communication in Pokrovsk,” he said. “So it’s a combination of us working with them to identify the abilities they have, how to use the strengths they have, to be successful in both areas.”
Ukraine has lost ground around Pokrovsk, but the fall of that logistics hub to Russia would threaten a critical supply line for Ukrainian forces who have been fighting to hold part of a roughly 600-mile front line in eastern Ukraine.
This is a vulnerability that US forces are dealing with.
“The Russians have pushed the defense line and (they) are starting to gain territory, so what we have to pay attention to is the level of Russian advance, and when they can get in the various artillery,” Brown said. “This is something that we will continue to look at and continue to work with the Ukrainians, (on) how to defend the region.”
In his own opening speech at Ramstein, Zelenskyy did not understand, stressing that his country needs more air defense systems and long-range weapons, and soon.
“Thank you again,” he told the assembled Western military commanders, “but the number of air defense systems has not been easily delivered. This is what was agreed, and this is what has not been fully delivered. The world now has a system to ensure that Russian terror does not result .
The summit in Ramstein was the 24th meeting of the Ukrainian Defense Contact Group, but only the second that Zelenskyy attended.
A major shakeup this week of the war-time cabinet has raised questions at home and among Western partners alike. This includes the dismissal of Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who has been the most familiar face of Ukraine’s foreign policy since the start of the war.
Even before the day of the meeting began, Austin was the first ally to offer additional support.
“I’m happy to say that President Biden will announce today an additional $250 million security assistance package for Ukraine,” he said. “This will increase our ability to meet the evolving requirements of Ukraine, and we will quickly deliver it to the war.”
The pace of the war has accelerated on both sides, but Zelenskyy has made it clear that his country can wait a little longer.