By John Irish
PARIS, July 13 (Reuters) – Western allies will seek to secure more air-defence commitments for Ukraine when they meet in Paris on Monday, as shortages have left it increasingly exposed to Russian ballistic missiles, despite recent shifts in momentum on the battlefield.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will be joined by at least 25 leaders for a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing, part of broader efforts that include putting together a common position that could be taken to Russia, and security guarantees to support any eventual peace deal.
Monday’s meeting comes days after a NATO summit that aimed to show transatlantic unity and long-term support for Ukraine.
Russia has stepped up strikes on Kyiv and the surrounding region in recent weeks, killing dozens. Officials said Russian missile and drone attacks across Ukraine on Saturday left eight dead and many more wounded.
“Today, the Russians have once again ‘triumphed’ over absolutely civilian targets,” Zelenskiy said in a social media post after more attacks on Monday.
“The pressure on Russia must work. New sanctions against the aggressor. New packages of support for Ukraine, new projects-like our European anti-ballistic project FREYJA- everything must work.”
Russia says it only attacks targets of military relevance and denies targeting civilians.
COALITION SEEKS TO HELP UKRAINE DOWN BALLISTIC MISSILES
Briefing reporters, a French presidency official said the focus would be anti-ballistic-missile cooperation, ranging from sourcing more U.S. Patriot interceptors and advancing the deployment of the Franco-Italian SAMP-T air defence system to looking at how the European and Ukrainian defence industries can develop alternatives.
Nine countries, including Italy, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Norway, will meet with about a dozen companies, including the SAMP-T manufacturer Eurosam, Leonardo, Thales and Saab ahead of the summit to push them to do more on air defence, diplomats said.
They said there was likely to be an announcement on formalising the Freyja project — Ukraine’s attempt to build a European-backed, lower-cost alternative to the Patriot system.
French President Emmanuel Macron, Zelenskiy and NATO officials will also attend the meeting.
One option under consideration is for different European nations to cooperate on a system that would complement SAMP-T and/or Patriot and give Ukraine a significant role in production.
Ukraine is critically low on munitions for its systems and has been largely unable to down ballistic missiles, which travel at several times the speed of sound, over the past month.
It has pleaded with allies for more supplies and has also pushed Europe to work with it on its own anti-ballistic air defence system.
“The ballistic missiles launched by (Russian President) Vladimir Putin are deliberately targeting civilian zones and June was one of the most murderous (months) since the start of the war,” Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in an interview with Ouest-France newspaper on Sunday.
As Russia’s strikes have increased, Kyiv has intensified drone attacks inside Russia, targeting oil facilities and weapons production as it has shifted the battlefield momentum in the war.
In Paris, leaders will also mull how to crimp Moscow’s sources of revenue, notably the “shadow fleet”, tankers with opaque ownership structures used to evade oversight to ship Russian oil.
The EU is set to adopt a 21st package of sanctions on Russia next week.
Macron has promised announcements on Monday, some of them bilateral, potentially concerning joint arms production.
He also said the coalition could announce joint military exercises as it seeks to make the concept of a future multinational force in Ukraine (MNFU) more of a practical reality.
“What must be remembered is that the MNFU consists of land, air, sea and training. All of these pillars are intended to be tested continuously, to varying degrees, with all participants in order to guarantee their credibility,” the official said.
“It’s not a question of conducting exercises in Ukraine.”
(Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Kevin Liffey, Aidan Lewis)
Comments