Ukrainian president urges UK Joint Expeditionary Force members to keep supporting Kyiv

ISTANBUL

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged members of the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) on Monday to lend his country more support amid its war with Russia.

"I am asking you to support our country right now with a clear decision -- to provide everything that can not only preserve the existing dynamics on the battlefield in Ukraine, but also accelerate the movement of our Defense Forces to victory," Zelenskyy told the leaders of JEF member countries at a summit in Riga, Latvia's capital, according to a statement by the Ukrainian presidency.

Zelenskyy said Russia's actions in Ukraine "can and must fail," adding that Kyiv's current goal was to speed up this outcome.

In their letters to St. Nicholas, Ukrainian children ask for air defense, weapons, and victory for themselves and for all Ukrainians, he added.

He later addressed individual leaders attending the JEF meeting, namely UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, and Icelandic Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir.

"Our victory will be the victory of each of you, it is the victory of Europe, your nations, the victory, which the whole world expects, I am sure of that," Zelenskyy added.