Volodymyr Zelensky says Poland will help form coalition to supply warplanes to Ukraine
- Kyiv hopes to secure advanced fighter aircraft from the West, as it prepares to launch a counteroffensive against Moscow’s forces
- The president says Ukrainian troops are still fighting for Bakhmut but could pull out if the Russians close in
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said during a trip to Warsaw on Wednesday that Poland would help form a coalition of Western powers to supply warplanes to Ukraine, as it did with battle tanks earlier this year.
Ukraine, which hopes to launch a counteroffensive in the coming weeks or months, wants to secure advanced fighter aircraft such as the US F-16 from the West to help fight back Russian invaders and defend itself from air strikes.
Warsaw is a close ally of Kyiv and helped galvanise support in the West to supply main battle tanks to Ukraine as part of a coalition of powers, a move that initially hit a diplomatic impasse that was then overcome.
“Just as your [Polish] leadership proved itself in the tank coalition, I believe that it will manifest itself in the planes coalition,” Zelensky said in a speech on a square in Warsaw.
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The Ukrainian leader said Russia would not defeat Europe while Ukraine and Poland were working closely together.
“Poland, with you, shoulder to shoulder, we will establish freedom in Europe forever. Tyranny will lose in history when it loses in Ukraine,” he said.