West too scared of Russia to arm Ukraine, suggests Zelensky

Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday demanded Western nations provide Ukraine with more useful military hardware and asked whether they were afraid of Moscow.

Several countries have promised to supply more anti-armour and anti-aircraft missiles as well as small arms but the Ukrainian president said Kyiv needed tanks, planes and anti-ship systems.

“That is what our partners have, that is what is just gathering dust there. This is all for not only the freedom of Ukraine, but for the freedom of Europe,” he said in a late night video address.

Ukraine needed just 1 per cent of Nato’s aircraft and 1 per cent of its tanks and would not ask for more, he said.

Mr Zelensky was visibly irritated as he continued: “We’ve already been waiting 31 days. Who is in charge of the Euro-Atlantic community? Is it really still Moscow, because of intimidation?”

He has repeatedly insisted that Russia will seek to expand further into Europe if Ukraine falls.

Nato countries have held back from sending military planes to support Kyiv’s defence.

Boris Johnson said it would “logistically” be “very difficult” for Britain to supply the Ukrainian president with the tanks and jets he asked for but “we are looking at what we can do”.

Washington rejected an offer to send jets to Ukraine via a US airbase in Germany, citing “serious concerns” over flying military aircraft into airspace contested by Russia.

Poland had proposed sending Mig-29 fighter jets via the base as they are among the few planes Ukrainian pilots could fly without more training.

A proposed EU plan to send fighter jets collapsed within days of the war beginning.

Nato has also rejected Mr Zelensky’s request for a no-fly zone over Ukraine on the grounds this could provoke a wider war.

Earlier on Saturday Mr Zelensky talked to Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda and expressed disappointment that the Mig-29s had not yet been transferred to Ukraine, the president’s office said in a statement.

“The price of procrastination with planes is thousands of lives of Ukrainians,” the office quoted him as saying. Mr Zelensky said Poland and the US had both stated their readiness to make a decision on the planes.