Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, currently in Yerevan to participate in the 8th European Political Community (EPC) Summit, held talks with a number of fellow world leaders who have arrived in the Armenian capital for the event.
Zelenskyy said on X that he discussed priority areas of defense in a meeting with Finland’s Prime Minister Petteri Orpo.
“During a meeting with Prime Minister of Finland Petteri Orpo, I thanked him for Finland’s recent decision to allocate an additional $300 million in defense support for Ukraine. We sincerely appreciate this, and we discussed priority areas of our defense – particularly air defense – that can be strengthened with this package. I proposed to the Prime Minister that we strengthen our bilateral partnership by signing an agreement in the format of the Drone Deal. Ukraine is ready to share its expertise and strengthen those who have been strengthening us since the very beginning of the full-scale invasion. We also touched on international cooperation, particularly our European integration. There is now a good window of opportunity to open the negotiating clusters, and Ukraine fully deserves this. I thank Finland for its support,” the Ukrainian leader said.
He said he also met with Norway’s PM Jonas Gahr Støre and discussed, among others, the “timely funding” of the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL).
“I thanked Norway for all its support for our country, in particular for its contributions to the PURL initiative totaling nearly $1 billion. Russia is not stopping its ballistic missile strikes, so the timely funding of PURL is critically important. We discussed our strategic partnership: the Drone Deal and efforts to strengthen air defense, as well as cooperation at the level of the private and public sectors. We paid special attention to energy support for Ukraine. I informed the Prime Minister of our needs, particularly regarding natural gas, for the coming winter. Ukraine must enter it prepared. I am grateful to Norway and personally to Jonas for the readiness to help,” Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy also met with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
“In Ukraine, we appreciate all the steps the United Kingdom has taken to support our people and weaken the aggressor, including efforts to counter Russia’s shadow fleet. We discussed this with Keir today. We also paid significant attention to defense support for Ukraine, in particular contributions to the PURL initiative. Ukraine is ready for the next round of negotiations in a trilateral format. The negotiation process to achieve a just and dignified peace was also among the topics of our discussion. We appreciate the United Kingdom’s position on continuing pressure on Russia. This is truly important. We separately discussed support for Ukraine’s energy sector. I briefed the Prime Minister on the situation on the battlefield and Russia’s strikes against Ukraine. It is important for Europe to coordinate its efforts and develop a joint air defense system to protect against threats from Russia,” he said.
Zelenskyy also said he held a “productive meeting” with Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš.
“We discussed in detail the bilateral areas of our relations – there is real potential to deepen our cooperation. We also separately discussed the European track and the next steps on Ukraine’s path to membership in the European Union. I thank the entire Czech people for their tremendous and heartfelt support for Ukraine – we truly appreciate it,” he said.