Zelensky calls for extra weapons, gas for winter

President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged G7 nations to provide extra gas and weapons to help Ukraine survive a brutal winter.

Local residents walk past a damaged building following Russian attacks in the southern city of Nikopol. Picture: AFP

President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged G7 nations to provide extra gas and weapons to help Ukraine survive a brutal winter, which threatens to bring further suffering to millions in the war-torn country.

With snow on the ground and Ukraine’s energy grid battered by Russian strikes, many are facing freezing temperatures without power or heating.

During a video conference with the G7 club of wealthy ­nations on Monday (Tuesday AEDT), Mr Zelensky said Ukraine needed “about two billion cubic metres” of additional gas to get through the winter.

He also urged the G7 to send more arms to Ukraine, including “modern tanks” as well as “rocket artillery and more long-range missiles”.

Western-supplied weapons have helped turn the tide in the war, and a senior US military ­official said Russia was likely turning to older, less reliable artillery and rocket ammunition as its newer stocks ran low.

Moscow’s supply of new ­ammunition was “rapidly dwindling” and would likely only last until early next year if its forces continue to fire at current rates, the official said.

This was “probably forcing them to increasingly use ammunition in what we would consider degraded conditions”.

“In other words, you load the ammunition and you cross your fingers and hope it’s going to fire, or when it lands that it’s going to explode,” the official said.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin highlighted Russian artillery ammunition issues late last month, attributing them to both Moscow’s logistical challenges and Ukrainian strikes on supply depots.

But Mr Zelensky said “Russia still has the advantage in artillery and missiles”.

“This is a fact,” he told the G7. “These capabilities of the occupying army are the ones to fuel the Kremlin’s arrogance.”

Kyiv said 40 per cent of Ukraine’s critical energy infrastructure had been damaged, with wave after wave of targeted Russian attacks.

The Ukrainian energy ministry said Russian missiles had hit all of the country’s thermal power plants, while 44 overhead high-voltage power lines had also been affected.

One power company said supply limitations in Kyiv were “significant” with 40 per cent of supplies diverted to critical infrastructure.

Oil and gas company DTEK said its specialists were “constantly looking for equipment to restore the energy infrastructure destroyed by Russia” and had agreed to contracts with European suppliers.

Mr Zelensky told the G7 “the terror against our power plants forced us to use more gas than ­expected”.

“This is why we need ­additional support over this particular winter,” he said.

The G7 leaders agreed on key elements of a platform to co-ordinate financial support for Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, before a summit in Paris on post-war reconstruction.

Mr Scholz said the reconstruction of Ukraine was “comparable perhaps with the Marshall Plan” – which was launched by the US to help Europe rebuild after the devastation of World War II.

He said he was “convinced that it is our unity, our determination that has led to Russian President Vladimir Putin standing all alone today.

Mr Zelensky also proposed a special summit “to determine how and when we can implement the points of the Ukrainian Peace Formula,” which would secure Ukraine’s security and territorial integrity.

He also urged Russia “to take a concrete and meaningful step ­towards a diplomatic settlement”, calling on “the occupier” Moscow to leave Ukrainian territory by Christmas. “The one who brought the war upon us has to take it away,” he said.

Meanwhile in the strategic Ukrainian port of Ochakiv, officials hope the Black Sea base can serve to consolidate Kyiv’s gains in the southern Kherson region.

After failing to seize the port, Russian troops have been pummelling Ochakiv from the nearby Kinburn peninsula.