Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia had violated its promise of an “energy truce” and carried out one of the largest missile strikes on Ukraine, thereby violating all agreements with the US.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this during a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
“Everyone can see the weather – the most difficult days, the coldest days of this winter, and it is precisely the strikes on infrastructure, primarily on energy, to deprive people of electricity, heating, to deprive people of warmth and cause blackouts – this is Russia’s true attitude to everything that is happening. We will be in contact with the American side on this. I expect that our partners will not remain silent about what is happening,” the Head of State said.
Zelenskyy and Rutte discussed the urgent supply of missiles for Patriot systems and the involvement of new partner countries in the PURL program, which allows the purchase of scarce missiles for air defense from the United States.
“As you know, Patriots are the most effective against ballistic missiles. This means that we need missiles, more missiles for Patriots. And we need the supply to be as large and prompt as possible. We are working on this. And I am grateful to Mark for his tremendous help in this matter,” the President said.
They also discussed obtaining licenses in Europe to produce the necessary means of defense, in particular missiles for American air defense systems, and coordinating efforts with partners to preserve Euro-Atlantic cooperation.
“What is currently in our partners’ warehouses must really work for defense. What we can produce together—and that is almost everything Europe needs—we must produce as much as possible. We need to achieve this level of cooperation, including through programs such as SAFE,” Zelenskyy said.
Mark Rutte noted that NATO continues to support Ukraine and highlighted support for the Ukrainian defense industry through direct investment and joint production projects. Rutte noted that Ukraine should receive reliable security guarantees and military support from its partners.