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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Western leaders to provide more advanced weapons to help his country fight Russia, and reiterated his call for Russian troops to withdraw from occupied Ukraine, suggesting Christmas as a date for withdrawal.
In a videoconference, Mr Zelensky told host Germany and other G7 leaders: “It was right to begin the withdrawal of Russian troops from internationally recognized Ukrainian territory this Christmas.
“If Russia withdraws its troops from Ukraine, it will ensure a credible cessation of hostilities.”
He added: “Moscow’s answer will indicate what they really want there: either further confrontation with the world, or an eventual end to aggression.”
The Kremlin has rejected all previous calls to roll back its land grabs in Ukraine and did not immediately respond to the latest call.
There have been no recent peace talks between the two countries, and there is no sign of an end to the war, which has entered its 10th month and has killed tens of thousands and left dozens of Ukrainian towns in ruins.
Russia illegally annexed parts of eastern and southern Ukraine, including the Crimean peninsula, in 2014, but does not fully control all of them.
Mr Zelensky said he aimed to take back all the occupied territories, while Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted on consolidating his forces’ control over them.
In his G7 speech, Zelensky echoed his prime minister’s call on Sunday to use long-range missiles, modern tanks, artillery and missile batteries and other high-tech air defense systems to counter Russian attacks that have killed millions. People cut off electricity and water. Ukrainians.
“Unfortunately, Russia still has an advantage in artillery and missiles,” he admitted.
Prime Minister Denis Shmikhal told French broadcaster LCI that in addition to making Ukrainians suffer, Russia wanted to flood Europe with a new wave of Ukrainian refugees by continuing to crack down on power stations and other infrastructure.
Zelensky said that protecting Ukraine’s energy facilities from Russian missiles and Iranian drone attacks “would be the protection of Europe as a whole, because these Russian attacks are causing humanitarian and immigration damage not only to Ukraine but to the entire European Union.” disaster”.
Polish President Andrzej Duda has said his country’s need for asylum refugees has increased.
“The number of refugees in Poland has (recently) risen to around 3 million. That could mean an increase in their numbers in Germany as well,” Mr Duda said after talks with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin.
Millions of Ukrainians fled following the February 24 Russian invasion.
Thousands have died and dozens of Ukrainian towns have been reduced to rubble.
On Monday, Russian shelling was once again largely focused on areas of the east and south that Putin had illegally annexed.
To fend off further strikes, Mr Shmyhal reiterated Ukraine’s request for Patriot surface-to-air missiles – a highly sophisticated system.
In the LCI interview, he also requested more German and French air defense systems, artillery supplies and modern main battle tanks.
Organizers in France expect more than 45 countries and 20 international agencies to attend the Paris conference, which begins on Tuesday, to raise and coordinate aid for Ukraine’s water, electricity, food, health and transport needs during the harsh winter months.
The supply of Patriot missiles to Ukraine would mark a major advance in the various defense systems the West has fielded to help the country repel Russian airstrikes.
So far, no country has offered them, a step that could mark an escalation in the fight with Russia.
A U.S. official told reporters Monday that the Pentagon has no current plans to launch Patriot missiles into Ukraine, but discussions are continuing.
The key problem, the official said, is that complex high-tech systems require extensive maintenance and training.
Air defense was also a topic of discussion during Mr Zelensky’s phone call with US President Joe Biden on Sunday.
Zelensky’s office said he told Biden that “approximately 50% of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure was destroyed.”
Mr. Biden “highlighted how the United States is prioritizing strengthening Ukraine’s air defenses through our security assistance, including the December 9 announcement of an additional $275 million in munitions and equipment, including systems to counter Russia’s use of unmanned aerial vehicles ’, Whitehouse said.
Russian drones struck several energy facilities near the Black Sea port of Odessa over the weekend, knocking out power to all customers except hospitals, maternity departments, boiler factories and pumping stations.
ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric concluded a visit to Ukraine, including Odessa, on Monday.
She said she had “witnessed firsthand how families are torn apart and how power outages and freezing temperatures have added to the suffering of too many people during this difficult winter”.
EU foreign ministers gathered in Brussels on Monday to discuss new sanctions to further punish Russia for its aggression in Ukraine.
Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney condemned “Russia’s deliberate targeting of civilians and the suffering they inflict on the general population”.
He described Russia’s actions as “a crime, both a crime of aggression and a crime against humanity”.
Slovakia said it opened a center in cooperation with Germany to repair Ukrainian howitzers and air defense systems of Western origin.
The EU member state’s defense ministry said the center was located at a military base in the town of Michalovce, about 35 kilometers (22 miles) west of the Ukrainian border.
In Ukraine, the eastern region of Donbass, which consists of Donetsk and Luhansk provinces, has once again been the focus of intense fighting, especially around the city of Bakhmut.
Ukrainian officials said on Monday that the country’s troops attacked a hotel in the Lugansk region that is the headquarters of the Wagner Group, a Russian private military contractor and mercenary group that plays a major role in eastern Ukraine.
Serhiy Haidai, the region’s Ukrainian governor, said hundreds of Russians were killed in Sunday’s attack on Kadiivka.
Local officials in Luhansk, backed by Moscow, confirmed that a Ukrainian strike had destroyed a hotel building in Cardivka, but claimed the building was not in use.
Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of the southeastern Ukrainian town of Melitopol, reported that Ukraine also attacked a hotel it said was housing analysts from Russia’s top security agency, the FSB.
Moscow did not comment on the claim, and none of the reports could be independently confirmed.
Elsewhere on the battlefield, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office said two civilians were killed and 10 wounded in Russian shelling of the town of Sirnik in the Donetsk region.
Kherson Governor Yaroslav Yanushevych said two civilians were killed and five wounded in a Russian attack on the southern city of the same name that Ukraine recaptured a month ago on Monday.
Russian shelling hit residential buildings and damaged power lines, he said.
Mr Yanushevych urged city residents to move to shelters.
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