European countries promised on Friday to send billions of dollars in additional funds to help Ukraine continue fighting Russia’s invasion, since an envoy from the United States made peace efforts on a trip to meet with the Russian president of the three -year war of Kremlin’s president.
Russian forces have the advantage in Ukraine, with war now in their fourth year. Ukraine has supported a proposal of Alto El Fuego de USA. UU., But Russia has blocked it by imposing conditions of great disagreement. European governments have accused Putin or dragging their feet.
“Russia has to move” on the way to end the war, published the president of the United States, Donald Trump, on social networks. He said the war is “terrible and sensitive.”
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Trump Steve Witkoff’s envoy was in Russia and would meet Putin in St. Petersburg. Witkoff, who has bones by pressing the Kremlin to accept a truce, initially with the envoy of Putin Kirill Dmitriev, images published by the Russian media were shown.
After presiding over a meeting of the Western sponsors of Ukraine in Brussels, British Secretary of Defense, John Healey, said that the new promises of military aid totaled more than $ 24 billion, “a record impulse in military funds for Ucrine, and we are growing.” “
Healey did not give a breakdown of that figure, and Ukraine in the past some countries repeat the old sacrifices in such committed conferences or fail to deliver real weapons and ammunition that are worth the money they promise.
NATO general secretary Mark Rutte said last week that Ukraine sponsors have produced around $ 21 billion so far in the first three months of this year. The head of foreign policy of the European Union, Kaja Kallas, said Friday that more than $ 26 billion have been committed.
Before the “Contact Group” meeting at the NATO headquarters, the Ukraine Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said that a key issue was to strengthen the aerial defenses of his country.
Standing throughout Healey at the end, Umerov described the meeting as “productive, effective and efficient”, and said it produced “one of the largest assistance packages” that Ukraine has received. “We are grateful to each nation that has provided this support,” he said.
Great Britain said that in a joint effort with Norway, just over $ 580 million would be spent to provide hundreds of thousands of military drones, radar systems and anti -tank mines, as well as repair and maintenance contracts to maintain.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zenskyy, has renewed his calls for more patriotic systems since 20 people were killed a week ago, including nine children, when a Russian missile crossed apartments and criticized a playground.
Zenskyy joined Friday meeting by video link.
Russia ceases to remember the fire
The Russian delay in the acceptance of Washington’s proposal has frustrated Trump and fed doubts about whether Putin really wants to stop fighting, while his biggest army has impulse on the battlefield.
“Russia continues to use bilateral conversations with the United States to delay negotiations on war in Ukraine, suggesting that Kremlin is not interested in serious peace negotiations to end war”, the Institute for the Study of Assetton Thinkton Thinkton Thinkton Thinkton.
Washington is still committed to ensuring a peace agreement, he even thought that four weeks passed since he made his proposals for Alto El Fuego, said spokeswoman Tammy Bruce.
“It is a dynamic that will not be resolved militarily. It is a meat grinder,” said Bruce Thorsday about war, and added that “nothing else can be discussed … until the shooting and murder stop.”
Observers expect a new Russian offensive
Ukrainian military officials and analysts believe that Russia prepares to launch a new military offensive in the next week to increase the pressure and strengthen the hand of the Kremlin in the negotiations.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said his country would provide Ukraine four short-range iris-t systems with missiles, as well as 30 missiles for use in patriotic batteries. The Netherlands plans to supply a Hawkeye air defense system and an early warning plane in the air.
Defense Minister Estonia, Hanno Pevkur, said his country is monitoring the world’s arms market and sees opportunities for Ukraine sponsors to buy more weapons and ammunition.
Pevkur said he believes that Putin could try to reach some kind of settlement with Ukraine before May 9, the day Russia marks the duration of the victory of World War II, which makes it even more vital to strengthen the position now.
“That is why we need to accelerate deliveries as fast as we can,” he said.
The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseeth, was absent from the forum that the United States created and directed for several years, although he spoke by video.
At the last meeting of the contact group in February, Hegseeth warned the European sponsors of Ukraine that the United States now has priorities in other places, in Asia and on the borders of the United States, and that they would have to take care of the intention and that of Ukraine.