President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a conversation with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, said the country urgently needs to strengthen air defense to protect people, historical heritage and continue the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

"He spoke about Russia's daily attempts to destroy the historic center of Odesa and port infrastructure. We must defend Odesa," he said on the Telegram channel on Tuesday.

According to him, during the conversation "we discussed further defense cooperation, the course of Ukrainian offensive operations, and Ukraine's current defense needs."

"Rishi Sunak and I noted the adoption by the G7 of the Joint Declaration of Support for Ukraine at the NATO Summit in Vilnius and the subsequent accession of other countries to it. We also coordinated future steps to fill it with concrete security guarantees on a bilateral basis," Zelenskyy also said.