At a summit in Latvia on Monday, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has urged fellow leaders of Joint Expeditionary Force nations to ignore any calls by Moscow for a ceasefire until it withdraws from conquered territory in Ukraine, according to Sky News.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the JEF meeting via video link just hours after Kyiv came under a Russian drone attack and asked the West for a wide range of weapons.
The prime minister said the alliance must deliver more military aid to Ukraine including additional air defense systems, artillery and armored vehicles.
“We must be clear that any unilateral call for a ceasefire by Russia is completely meaningless in the current context. I think it would be a false call, it would be used by Russia to regroup, to reinforce their troops. And until they have withdrawn from conquered territory there can and should be no real negotiation,” he said.
Instead, he suggested, the alliance must continue to focus on “degrading Russia’s capability to regroup and resupply.”
“A lot depends on you – how this war will end,” Zelensky was quoted by Reuters as saying. “The more successful our defense forces are, the faster the Russian aggression will fail.”
JEF is a U.K.-led grouping of Northern European countries, including Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway.
Photo: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks via video link as Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and other listen during a Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) plenary session in Riga, Latvia, December 19, 2022. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls/Pool
