Warsaw, Poland.- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday he expects the upcoming NATO summit to provide specific measures to strengthen the country’s air defenses against Russia, hours after a Russian missile killed at least 31 people and wounded 154 others in several locations, including a children’s hospital in Kyiv.
Zelensky met Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Warsaw to discuss further NATO support for Ukraine, as well as signing a bilateral cooperation and defence document.
“We would like to see greater resolve from our allies and hear decisive responses to such attacks,” Zelensky told a joint press conference, stressing that Ukraine will retaliate.
Zelensky made a stop in Warsaw on his way to the NATO summit, which begins Tuesday in Washington, where the 75th anniversary of the Western defense alliance will be commemorated.
The leaders are expected to discuss ways to provide long-term, reliable security and military training support to Ukraine more than two years after Russia’s invasion.
At the start of the press conference with Tusk, Zelensky asked those present to observe a moment of silence for the victims of Monday’s airstrikes.
Tusk offered any available form of assistance to the children who were evacuated from the bombed hospital.
A legion of Ukrainian volunteers currently abroad will be trained in Poland with the aim of joining the defense effort on Ukrainian soil, Zelensky said.
Poland will be represented at the NATO summit by President Andrzej Duda, who will meet with Zelensky on Monday.
Poland is one of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters and has offered some $4 billion in military equipment, training and other defense supplies.
It has also provided humanitarian, political and economic aid.
Tusk said Poland “will continue to ask our allies to allow Ukraine to join the European Union and NATO as soon as possible.”
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