Zelenskyy to urge increased air defences amid escalating conflict with Russia

KYIV – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he will again call on allies to boost Ukraine’s air defences at this week’s meeting in Germany, as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office later this month with a vow to end the almost three-year conflict quickly.

Zelenskyy said that dozens of partner countries will participate in the meeting of the Ramstein group at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Thursday.

U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd J. Austin will attend the meeting. Biden was originally scheduled to attend the October summit in Ramstein, but it was postponed because of the response to Hurricane Milton that battered the U.S.

In his final weeks in office, Joe Biden pushed to send as much military aid as possible to Ukraine before Donald Trump is sworn in on January 20.

Trump claimed during his election campaign that he could end the conflict in a single day, raising questions about whether the United States will maintain its position as Ukraine’s largest and most crucial military supporter.

On Saturday, Moscow threatened to retaliate after intercepting eight U.S.-manufactured ATACMS missiles fired from Ukraine toward Russia’s southwestern Belgorod region.

“These actions by the Kyiv regime, which is supported by Western curators, will be met with retaliation,” the Russian defence ministry said in a statement on Telegram, without specifying what countermeasures it intended to take. Ukraine has not commented on the strike.

Since U.S. President Joe Biden authorised Ukraine to strike Russia with these missiles in November, Ukrainian forces have used them multiple times to target remote locations on Russian soil.

In response to similar strikes in the past, the Kremlin fired an experimental medium-range hypersonic missile, known as “Oreshnik,” which it claims cannot be intercepted by Western air defence systems.