Head of President's Office discusses strengthening air defence in Ukraine's south to protect ports with Biden's adviser

Andrii Yermak, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, has discussed the strengthening of air defence in the south of Ukraine to protect ports  with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. 

Source: European Pravda, referring to a press release from the press service of the President’s Office on bilateral talks with representatives of some of the countries that took part in the meeting in Saudi Arabia on the upcoming summit of the peace formula

Details: In a conversation with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, they discussed Ukraine's priority defence needs, including strengthening air defence in the south to protect port infrastructure, which Russia has been targeting since withdrawing from the so-called grain deal. 

They also agreed on joint actions in the context of implementing the Peace Formula proposed by Ukraine and preparing for the Global Peace Summit.

"They also exchanged views on the outcome of the NATO Summit in Vilnius and further steps towards Ukraine's integration into the Alliance. Andrii Yermak positively assessed the start of negotiations with the United States on a bilateral agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine," the press release said.

In addition, bilateral meetings were held with the heads of delegations from Spain, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, Qatar and France, as well as with national security and foreign policy advisers to the leaders of Sweden, South Africa, Bahrain, Canada, Italy, Denmark and South Korea, and Chief Foreign Policy Adviser to the President of the European Council. 

The meetings focused mainly on further steps with the participation of these countries to organise a peace formula summit and Ukraine's current defence needs. 

Background:

• The Office of the President reported on the outcomes of the meeting in Saudi Arabia regarding the implementation of the Ukrainian Peace Formula and noted that most of the participating states have decided how they will make their contribution. They also noted that there were three times as many participating countries as at the first such meeting in Copenhagen.
• Unofficially, the media learned from European diplomats that the meeting decided to form working groups on the key topics of the 10 points of the peace formula, and the timing of the summit was not determined, but its organisation by the end of 2023 is considered realistic. 
• President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy expects that the summit on the peace formula will be organised in autumn 2023.

Ukrainska Pravda is the place where you will find the most up-to-date information about everything related to the war in Ukraine. Follow us on Twitter, support us, or become our patron!