MUNICH: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on his country’s allies to ramp up support in the fight against the Russian invasion, in remarks to the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, reported German news agency (dpa).
Zelensky was in southern Germany on the second day of the 60th edition of the Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering of top political and defence officials to debate international security policy.
“If we don’t act now, Putin will succeed in turning the next few years into a catastrophe,“ the Ukrainian president told the conference.
Zelensky’s comments came after the address of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who called on EU partners to follow Berlin’s example and ramp up aid for Ukraine, saying it is in member states’ own security interest to do so.
For the current year, Germany has almost doubled its military aid to more than €7 billion (US$7.5 billion), with commitments for the coming years totalling €6 billion, the German leader said.
He very much hoped “that similar decisions would be taken in all EU capitals,“ Scholz said.
“We, Europeans, must take much greater care of our own security – now and in the future,“ Scholz said. At the same time, he emphasised that German support for Kyiv is “broad and extensive, but above all it is long term”.
His comments come after he signed a long-term security pact with Ukraine on Friday and pledged additional weapons worth around €1.1 billion for its defence against Russia, in a clear show of support from Berlin as Kyiv prepares for a third year of war with Russia.
Later on Friday, France followed suit and signed a similar security agreement with Ukraine.
Zelensky on Saturday thanked Scholz for the new security pact, warning that the longer the war in Ukraine continued, the higher the risk of it spreading as well as further damaging the internationl order.-Bernama
