Zelensky says long Iran conflict would hurt Ukraine air defence
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky insists that the eastern Donetsk region still under Ukraine’s control is vital for defending the country against any future Russian attack.
PHOTO: EPA
KYIV – A protracted war in the Middle East could reduce the availability of air defences for Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, acknowledging potential ripple effects from the US-led bombing campaign in Iran
Washington has all but stopped providing military aid to Kyiv since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in 2025, but the US continues to sell weapons financed by Ukraine’s allies, mainly from Europe.
Mr Zelensky said that he had discussed military assistance with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz earlier on March 2 and is set to discuss the issue with other capitals later in the day.
Aid tranches from allies are proceeding as usual for now, he said.
“The shipments that we counted on haven’t declined,” Mr Zelensky said in recorded answers posted on a Whatsapp chat with reporters on March 2. “In any case, if military activities in the Middle East are prolonged, it will undoubtedly influence the supply.”
The strikes on Iran take place at a particularly fraught moment for talks to end Russia’s four-year invasion
Mr Zelensky said he had no information that the talks are going to be cancelled, but that Turkey or Switzerland may become alternative venues for the meeting, which would be the fourth gathering in the format since the start of the year.
Russian officials increasingly consider that there’s no point in continuing US-led peace talks unless Kyiv is willing to cede territory to reach a deal, according to people familiar with the negotiations.
Talks this week will be decisive in whether or not the sides can agree on terms to end the war, they told Bloomberg before Iran strikes began on Feb 28
The territorial issue is the most difficult to resolve.
Mr Zelensky insists that the fortified area of the eastern Donetsk region still under Ukraine’s control is vital for defending the country against any future Russian attack – and that Kyiv won’t recognise Moscow’s illegal occupation of any Ukrainian territory.
Russia hasn’t changed its goals in Ukraine, but its appetite for land has “slightly declined” in talks, Mr Zelensky said.
At the same time, Kyiv isn’t discussing any swaps that would include retrieving small Russia-controlled territories on its borders in return for giving up the rest of Ukraine-held areas in Donbas, according to the president.
Russia is ready to withdraw troops from Ukraine’s north-eastern Sumy and Kharkiv regions as well as the Dnipropetrovsk region as part of the accord, and wouldn’t press demands for more territory in the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, one person told Bloomberg. BLOOMBERG
