(Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday he had “good news” on artillery and air defence supplies after talks with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis in Bucharest, but gave no details.
“My main accent today was air defence. And I’m glad that Ukraine was heard by the Romanian side,” Zelenskiy, who has been seeking more arms to defend Ukraine against Russia’s invasion, told a joint press conference in the Romanian capital.
Zelenskiy also said everything possible should be done to prevent Russia turning part of the Black Sea or the Danube region into what he described as a maritime “dead zone”.
Russia has pulled out of a deal that guaranteed safe shipments of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea, and has been attacking Ukrainian port infrastructure on the Danube River.
Zelenskiy also touched on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, reiterating that he believed it was in Russia’s interests to inflame war in the Middle East.
“We believe that Russia is one of those who helped and is behind these respective steps,” Zelenskiy said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier on Tuesday that a suggestion by Zelenskiy on Monday that it was in Russia’s interests to stoke war in the Middle East to weaken global unity had “absolutely no basis”.
(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa and Pavel Polityuk, Writing by Olena Harmash, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
