Volodymyr Zelenskiy has visited his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, in Warsaw ahead of the NATO summit in Washington tomorrow.
Speaking to reporters, Tusk said Poland was open to the idea of shooting down Russian missiles headed for NATO territory while they were still over Ukrainian soil.
“We need clear cooperation within NATO here, because such actions require such a shared responsibility of NATO … we are open to it, logic shows that this would absolutely be a more effective action, he said.
His comments came after Zelenskiy vowed that Ukraine would retaliate after Russian missile attacks killed at least 29 people across his country and damaged a children’s hospital in Kiev.
The Ukrainian president called on Kiev’s allies to respond decisively to Monday’s attack at a press conference that began with a minute’s silence for the victims.
Zelenskiy said:
I would also like to hear from our partners (for) greater stability and a strong response to the blow that Russia has once again dealt to our people, our land, our children.
We will take revenge against these people, we will give a strong response from our side to Russia, of course. The question for our partners is: can they answer?
Zelenskiy said Kiev wanted to be able to use weapons supplied by its partners to hit sites in Russia from where the attacks were launching.
“I think we would really like to get such a decision from our partners,” he said. “Or they would like to see strikes again.”
Zelenskiy said Ukraine was waiting for concrete steps from its Western partners to strengthen its air defenses and protect its energy sector.
Tusk and Zelenskiy signed a security agreement, in a similar way with other European countries, such as France and Great Britain. Ukraine and Poland agreed to further develop political, military and economic cooperation and “cooperate closely in the reconstruction of Ukraine as a sovereign and democratic state”.
The Ukrainian president has said he wanted to double Ukraine’s air defense capacity over the summer. Kiev has indicated it hopes for progress on air defense supplies at the NATO summit. A senior official of the US State Department has said that Kiev is expected to receive “good news” at the summit.
