European powers vowed to intensify support for Ukraine as world leaders, military officers and diplomats gathered in Germany for the Munich security conference to discuss Europe’s security situation since the Russian invasion. About 40 heads of state and government – as well as politicians and security experts from nearly 100 countries, including the US, Europe and China – are expected to attend during the three days of the conference.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, urged the west to speed up its support, telling the Munich conference that Vladimir Putin would gain a military advantage unless arms deliveries arrived soon. “We need to hurry up,” Zelenskiy said in a video address. “We need speed – speed of our agreements, speed of our delivery … speed of decisions to limit Russian potential.”
Zelenskiy warned a possible consequence of delaying western weapons to Ukraine could be a Russian invasion of Moldova. He said neighbouring Belarus would make a mistake of historic proportions if it joined in the Russian offensive and claimed polls showed 80% of its people did not wish to join.
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, gave Zelenskiy an indirect rebuff, saying caution was better than hasty decisions and unity was better than going it alone. Scholz said Germany was the biggest supplier of weapons in continental Europe, and that the region was in uncharted territory and there was no blueprint for confronting a nuclear-armed aggressor, making it vital to avoid an unintended escalation.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, urged allies to intensify their military support for Ukraine to help it carry out a needed counter-offensive against Russia. There could be no peace in Ukraine until Russia was defeated, Macron said, adding that Russia was doomed to “a defeat in the future”.
