Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with two US senators on Thursday night to discuss improving his country’s air defense and toughening sanctions against Russia.
In a post on social media early, Zelenskyy said he had met with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut on the sidelines of the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome.
Graham and Blumenthal are the co-sponsors of a bipartisan bill that calls for a 500% tariff on goods from countries that are still buying Russian oil, gas and uranium, among other exports.
The bill would target countries like China and India, which make up for around 70% of Russian energy exports, which are helping fund Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
“Undoubtedly, this is precisely the lever that can bring peace closer and make diplomacy worthwhile,” Zelenksyy said.
“Right now, our priority is strengthening air defences. Russia wants to move on to using 1,000 drones in the space of a single attack,” he added.
“It is therefore important to boost defences, particularly to invest in interceptor drones. We spoke about continuing supplies from the United States and joint weapons production.”
Zelenskyy added that Ukraine was willing to work together with its European allies to buy “large US Defence packages.”
On Thursday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine had reached an agreement with Germany for Berlin to purchase two US-made Patriot missile defense systems.
The White House said on July 1 that it was pausing shipments of some air defense and precision guided weapons that were due to be sent to Ukraine, but appeared to reverse course amid Russia’s ongoing and intensifying air strikes this week.
