KYIV – Ukraine has won key pledges of further support for its fight against Russia from world leaders attending the Group of Seven summit in France, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday.
The leaders of the world’s leading industrial economies promised to strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses and ensure its energy supply, as well as step up international economic pressure on Moscow, as Kyiv’s fight against Russia’s all-out invasion stretches into its fifth year with no end in sight.
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“The G7 Summit in France delivered important results for Ukraine. Most importantly, we agreed on additional strengthening of Ukraine’s air defense,” Zelenskyy, who attended the gathering, said on X.
“Our partners will ensure support for our defense and energy resilience,” he said, adding they will also introduce new sanctions on Russia.
The Ukrainian leader has spent a lot of time since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 trying to secure international support for his country and diplomatically isolate Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Zelenskyy was expected to attend a European Union summit in Brussels on Thursday. Ukraine on Monday officially started EU membership negotiations, launching a process that could take years even as it fights Russia.
The Iran war has distracted Washington from its largely fruitless yearlong effort to stop the fighting in Ukraine, and Zelenskyy sought to engage with U.S. President Donald Trump at the G7 gathering where key European leaders were also present.
Putin has tried to cut out Europe and Kyiv and negotiate Ukraine’s future directly with Washington.
G7 leaders applaud Ukraine's recent battlefield performance
The leaders of Japan, the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Canada and the U.S. threw their support behind Ukraine in a joint statement published overnight.
“We commend Ukraine for its resilience and progress on the battlefield in recent months and emphasize there is now a new momentum” in Kyiv’s resistance, it said.
Ukraine’s battlefield performance against Russia’s bigger army has markedly improved in recent months, Western officials and analysts say.
High-tech Ukrainian drones are pinning down Russian troops on the front line, choking Russian supply lines in occupied regions of Ukraine and disrupting oil production deep inside Russia that provides vital revenue for Moscow. That has made the war, which Moscow refers to as a “special military operation,” more visible to Russians and increased pressure on Putin.
But Ukraine is short of American-made Patriot air defense missiles, in part because of U.S. stocks being depleted by the Middle East conflict, leaving it vulnerable to the ballistic missiles that Russia uses in its strategic bombing campaign.
The G7 statement promised Ukraine more air defense capabilities, without specifying what type of weapons.
The leaders also said they would consider granting Ukraine licenses for it to manufacture Western weapons. Kyiv has asked for permits to make Patriot missiles itself.
The summit outcome shows that G7 backing for Ukraine is “as strong as seldom before” and sends a clear signal to Moscow, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said.
Ukraine says a Russian drone kills horses at a school
In attacks reported Wednesday, a Russian drone struck an equestrian sports school for children in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, hitting a stable and killing horses, a regional official said.
Staff at the school were not hurt in the nighttime attack, according to preliminary information, said Oleh Hryhorov of the Sumy regional military administration.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 157 Ukrainian drones from late Tuesday until early Wednesday.
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AP reporters Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed to this story.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine