Zelensky appeals for weapons at Ukraine aid meet in Germany

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00:00Well, moments ago, the U.S. government announced $250 million in new security assistance for

00:06Ukraine.

00:07This at an aid meeting in Germany's Rammstein Air Base, where Ukraine's President Volodymyr

00:12Zelensky made a rare appearance.

00:15It comes at a pivotal moment in the war against Russia.

00:18Ukraine recently began its first offensive operations while facing a significant threat

00:22back in the Donbas region.

00:28For more, we can speak to our correspondent, Gulliver Cragg, standing by.

00:31Hello to you, Gulliver.

00:32Tell us a little bit more about what Volodymyr Zelensky was hoping to get out of this trip.

00:37Well, I think he's hoping to give it a sort of a boost.

00:41I think the word he used was adrenaline.

00:43By actually showing up in person, the Ukrainians want three things, mainly.

00:49More weapons, of course, particularly air defense systems and long-range missiles.

00:54They also, though, want the weapons that have been promised to be delivered on time.

00:57He said that in his remarks that were broadcast.

01:00He also said that he would be speaking to the delegates off the record.

01:04Maybe that part is more important.

01:05But certainly, although he was reading out remarks in English from a piece of paper,

01:11he was still pretty, you know, insistent, Volodymyr Zelensky, about the need for promises

01:16to be kept on time.

01:17The Ukrainians don't like to give details about which countries aren't delivering what

01:21they promised or what exactly has not been delivered.

01:24But there is, you know, widespread understanding that a lot of things are delivered late.

01:29In February this year, the defense minister, Rustem Omurov, said as much as half of the

01:34military equipment that is promised to Ukraine ends up being delivered with significant delays

01:38and some of it without all of the equipment that it needs.

01:41In particular, the F-16 planes that Ukraine has recently received apparently don't have

01:46the right missiles that they need and other important parts in order to be able to use

01:51them to their full capacity.

01:53So that's the sort of second aspect that Volodymyr Zelensky is insisting on.

01:58Please keep your promises and keep them on time.

02:00He's very much talking about how urgent everything is.

02:05And the other thing, of course, that he is going to be insisting on very much, as all

02:09the Ukrainian leaders have been talking about for the past few weeks, is they want permission

02:13to use longer range weapons to strike targets inside Russia.

02:16The lack of understanding in Ukraine is only growing with every week that goes about what

02:23the Western allies mean when they talk about fear of escalation and of NATO countries'

02:27implication into the conflict.

02:29They feel that they proved with their incursion into Kursk region in Russia that Putin's supposed

02:34red lines are not really red lines at all.

02:36Vladimir Putin, in the eyes of the Ukrainians, is doing all he can, using all the force at

02:40his disposal in his campaign against Ukraine.

02:43And whether or not the Ukrainians are allowed to use weapons that have a range limit of

02:47100 kilometers or 300 kilometers, that's not going to make a difference in terms of

02:52escalation or, you know, increased Russian wrath against the West.

02:57Though, there was another reason that was given yesterday by Sabrina Singh, the Pentagon

03:01spokeswoman, as to why the Americans don't want the Ukrainians to use these long range

03:06ATACOM missiles to strike targets further inside Russia.

03:10And that, according to her, is that the Americans simply don't have that many of them and they

03:13aren't going to be able to keep resupplying Ukraine with them.

03:17And they think that the Ukrainians have more need for them for striking targets in Crimea

03:22and other occupied parts of Ukraine.

03:24Yeah.

03:25And, Golvar, is a concern on the Ukrainian side about whether, whether this aid will

03:32dry up?

03:34Yeah, they're certainly worried.

03:36I don't know if they'd say whether it will dry up, but worried that it's not coming in

03:40fast enough and that it's sort of diminishing.

03:43The Germans are talking about cutting the amount of money that they spend on aid to

03:48Ukraine.

03:49What they've been saying publicly, the Ukrainians, is that they feel that the internal political

03:53situation, particularly in very important allied countries like the United States and

03:58France, has taken precedence over the Ukrainian situation.

04:03There's also Israel.

04:05They want their allies to sort of get their eyes back on Ukraine and really be focused

04:11on it.

04:12They're very worried about the U.S. elections and what's going to happen after that.

04:15They want to get as much help as they can before that.

04:18But it's also just because the situation is getting worse in Ukraine by the day.

04:22The Russians are really advancing rapidly in Donbass.

04:25Their ability to continue striking targets far from the front line pretty much every

04:29single night means that the Russians have got more capacity to produce and acquire missiles

04:33than the Ukrainians thought they had.

04:35That's a very worrying development.

04:37We've seen with the recent strikes on Lviv that even very major Ukrainian cities are

04:41not fully protected by air defences.

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