Zelenskyy discusses cooperation with European leaders in Yerevan

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met on Sunday the leaders of Norway, UK, Finland, and Czech Republic in Yerevan, ahead of the 8th European Political Community summit scheduled for Monday.

Zelenskyy and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store discussed strategic partnership, including a drone deal, efforts to strengthen air defense, and bilateral cooperation.

“I thanked Norway for all its support for our country, in particular for its contributions to the PURL (Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List) initiative totaling nearly $1 billion,” he wrote on US social media platform X.

“Russia is not stopping its ballistic missile strikes, so the timely funding of PURL is critically important,” he added.

Zelenskyy said he informed Store of Kyiv’s needs, particularly regarding natural gas, for the coming winter.

“Ukraine must enter it prepared. I am grateful to Norway and personally to Jonas for the readiness to help,” he said.

Ukraine and Norway signed a defense deal in April. Zelenskyy had said they were working on a drone initiative to counter Shahed attacks.

With British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Zelenskyy discussed support for the Ukrainian energy sector, and defense, including contributions to the PURL program, as well as trilateral peace talks with Russia.

“We in Ukraine value all the steps Great Britain is taking to support our people and weaken the aggressor, including in the fight against the Russian shadow fleet. We discussed this today with Keir,” Zelenskyy said, underlining that Ukraine appreciates London’s position on continuing “pressure” on Moscow.

In talks with Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, the Ukrainian leader discussed bilateral relations, and underlined the “real potential” to deepen cooperation.

“We also separately discussed the European track and the next steps on Ukraine’s path to membership in the European Union,” he said.

Separately, Zelenskyy offered Finland to strengthen bilateral partnership by signing an agreement in the “Drone Deal” format during his meeting with Prime Minister Petteri Orpo.

He said Ukraine is ready to share its expertise and strengthen “those who have been strengthening us” since the beginning of conflict with Russia.

“I thanked him for Finland’s recent decision to allocate an additional $300 million in defense support for Ukraine. We sincerely appreciate this, and we discussed priority areas of our defense – particularly air defense – that can be strengthened with this package,” Zelenskyy said on X.

Earlier, Zelenskyy announced that weapons exports “will become a reality” after key details were approved at the state level.

He said a new format of cooperation called “Drone Deal,” covering the production and supply of drones, missiles, ammunition and other military equipment, as well as technology exchange and integration with partners’ defense systems, is already underway with countries across the Middle East and Gulf region, Europe and the Caucasus.