Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky took his crusade for fighter jets to meetings with the EU in Brussels, after his visit to Paris where he met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron. In fact, Macron accompanied Zelensky to Brussels.
Speaking to the European Parliament, Zelensky portrayed Ukraine as the heart of Europe. Saving Ukraine is saving Europe, he suggested. “This is our Europe, these are our rules, this is our way of life. And for Ukraine, it’s a way home, a way to its home,” Zelensky said, referencing Ukraine’s aim to join the European Union. “I am here in order to defend our people’s way home.”
He also made an appeal for more tanks and aircraft. “We need artillery guns, ammunition, modern tanks, long-range missiles and modern fighter jets,” Zelensky said. “We have to enhance the dynamic of our cooperation” and act “faster than the aggressor,” he added. He said he will be talking with leaders bilaterally to discuss this issue, claiming that the discussions he had had so far have been “very concrete, very precise.”
Zelensky also held a press conference at EU headquarters making the same appeal. In a meeting with EU leaders alone, he also indicated that some individual countries had already promised to send fighter jets. Although no concrete promises were given on the spot, if their earlier performance on his demands for tanks is any indication, the EU will soon be following the United Kingdom in approving new, advanced weaponry for Kiev.
The same day, an announcement was released by the office of the Hungarian Prime Minister in Budapest saying that Ukraine could not become a member of the EU before it eliminated its prejudicial language law, which not only restricts Russian speakers but also the large Hungarian minority within the present territory of Ukraine. This would require that Ukraine eliminate this basic tool in the Ukrainization project.
