Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Ukraine is grateful to the EU for all 21 rounds of sanctions against Russia, but that this is not enough.
"We are raising the issue that the most important thing for Ukraine today is to defend itself against ballistic missiles, and thousands of components for Russian ballistic missiles are being supplied to them from various countries around the world, including from our close partners," the Ukrainian president said in Belgrade at a joint press conference with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić on Saturday.
According to him, these missiles are then fired at Ukrainians, including children.
"That is why imposing sanctions on weapons and the supply of all these components is the top priority. During the war, it is important not to let Russia spend hundreds of billions on this war," he said.
"Next, let’s talk about bureaucracy. This is a serious problem. For example, I spoke with President Biden during the first year of the war, and I pleaded with him to grant me licenses for the Patriot system. I spoke with several European partners during the first and second years of the war – when we began using some of their military technology – asking them to grant me licenses, because their production capacity is very limited and some issues remain unresolved to this day," Zelenskyy said.
"We’ve now reached an agreement with President Trump that he’ll grant the licenses, but imagine if we’d received them four years ago. We would already be manufacturing Patriots for everyone. And Europe – the part of Europe that wants and would like to have Patriots, anti-ballistic systems, and missiles – would already have everything. I am absolutely certain of this. But now we’re just dealing with paperwork. But it’s not a piece of paper or a paper rocket that’s flying – it’s a real rocket that kills people. So, if we say that the Americans should provide them, then the Europeans – we’ve also been working with them for a long time to resolve issues regarding certain licenses," he added.
