Zelenskyy Seeks $30 Billion from Partners for Arms Production and Defence
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on Western allies to provide around $30 billion by the end of 2025 to increase Ukrainian arms production and deter Russia's offensive.
The Gaze reports on this with reference to Bloomberg.
‘We are not yet operating at full capacity,’ Zelensky said Tuesday at a press conference in Kyiv.
According to him, $30 billion is needed to cover this deficit. He called this amount an ‘approximate estimate’ of the cost of Ukraine's military objectives.
Zelenskyy's government is increasingly focusing on domestic efforts as Trump's diplomacy has yet to yield results and Russian forces have intensified their missile and drone attacks — this month saw some of the most extensive strikes in three years of war.
The issue of funding is critical as international aid, which has been flowing since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, is drying up and there is no end in sight to the fighting.
Zelenskyy said that frozen Russian assets could be a source of funding — and he plans to call on the Group of Seven (G7) countries to step up their efforts in this direction. Last year, the G7 proposed a €50 billion ($56.5 billion) loan package to be secured by proceeds from approximately $300 billion in frozen Russian assets.
‘These are the assets of a country that brought war to our land,’ Zelenskyy said. ‘I believe there are many tools available to finance Ukraine's military efforts.’
Zelenskyy also stressed the need to increase military drone stocks to 1,000 units and raise the number of drone operations against Russia from 100 to 300-500 per day.
‘This will show the Russians that there will be a response if our partners help us,’ he said. ‘The problem is not production capacity, but financing.’
As The Gaze reported earlier, after Russia heavily shelled Ukraine for the third night in a row, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the United States and Europe to show strength against Moscow to force it to cease fire.