Ukraine in talks to hold first meeting of coalition to counter ballistic missiles

Ukraine is in talks to hold a meeting of a European coalition to develop capabilities to counter ballistic missiles, whose establishment was announced earlier.

Source: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy before a meeting with the German chancellor in Ankara, reported by a European Pravda correspondent

Details: Speaking about the talks already held in Ankara, Zelenskyy stressed that he aims to hold negotiations with the member states of the coalition on developing capabilities to counter ballistic missiles.

He said it is an organisationally complex meeting that is currently being prepared and that the first results are already visible today, referring to the coalition. He added that discussions are underway with Kyiv's partners to agree on a date for a meeting in this framework.

Zelenskyy did not elaborate, but the context suggests that the meeting will take place at the level of leaders.

These will be the first talks held in this framework. The idea of establishing the coalition was first made public in May, when an adviser-level meeting was held to discuss its creation. During that meeting, discussions focused on anti-missile production in Europe, but it is yet to be known whether the format might also be expanded to include the supply of Patriot interceptors for Ukraine.

Background:

• On 18 June, Zelenskyy announced that a "very important event" was coming in the development of a joint anti-ballistic defence system between Ukraine and its European partners.
• Also in June, he said that the UK, France and Germany (the E3 diplomatic format) will help Ukraine with anti-ballistic defence.

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