After his visit to Germany and Italy, Zelensky had dinner yesterday with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, whose intentions, according to De Vries, are clear: “The country will continue to support Ukraine as long as necessary”. With a large delivery of dozens of armored vehicles and light tanks, as well as training, equipment, humanitarian, political and financial aid. Sometimes it was different, so far France has lagged behind the UK and Germany.
Gear
“There seems to have been an acceleration. France and Germany were rather hesitant at the very beginning of the war, but in recent months the situation has changed considerably.’ Macron and Zelensky called for new sanctions against Russia in a statement, even as the European Commission is already preparing a new package.
‘His tour of Europe was fruitful’
The eleventh package contains new names of individuals and companies in Russia who can no longer do business with the European Union. But according to De Vries there is also talk of punishing countries and penalizing companies that try to circumvent the sanctions. “Member states will decide on this in the coming weeks.”
Full plane
Zelensky is now in London where he has been promised long-range drones by Prime Minister Sunak, the Ukrainian president is returning home far from empty handed. For example, he left Germany with a €2.7 billion arms package, the largest to date. Germany also promised him 30 Leopard 1 tanks, as well as surface-to-air missiles, anti-aircraft systems, other combat vehicles and cash. “He’s really flying back with a full plane. In this respect, his tour of Europe has been very fruitful.’
Zelensky’s request for F-16s, however, remains unanswered for now. While the Netherlands is unwilling to do this, the UK, Germany and the US believe this is not the case. However, De Vries thinks it’s a sliding scale. “These F-16s will no doubt also be promised somewhere in the next few months.”
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