Zelenskyy Holds Key Meetings in Yerevan

(MENAFN) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy convened a series of high-stakes bilateral meetings in Yerevan on Sunday with the leaders of Norway, the United Kingdom, Finland, and the Czech Republic, on the eve of the 8th European Political Community summit set to open Monday.

Norway
In talks with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, Zelenskyy covered a broad agenda encompassing strategic partnership, a prospective drone agreement, air defense reinforcement, and wider 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 X, the US social media platform.

Stressing the urgency of continued funding, Zelenskyy added: "Russia is not stopping its ballistic missile strikes, so the timely funding of PURL is critically important."

The Ukrainian leader also raised the issue of natural gas supplies for the approaching winter, noting that Kyiv must enter the cold season fully prepared. "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 agreement in April, with Zelenskyy having previously indicated both sides were advancing a drone initiative aimed at countering Russian Shahed drone attacks.

United Kingdom
With British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Zelenskyy addressed support for Ukraine's energy sector, defense contributions to the PURL program, and the prospects for trilateral peace negotiations involving 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, stressing that Kyiv deeply values London's posture of sustained "pressure" on Moscow.

Czech Republic
During his exchange with Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, Zelenskyy reviewed bilateral ties and highlighted what he described as the "real potential" for significantly deepened cooperation between the two nations.

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

Finland
In his meeting with Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, Zelenskyy proposed formalizing bilateral defense cooperation through a dedicated agreement under the "Drone Deal" framework — a new cooperation format he said is already operational with partners across the Middle East, the Gulf region, Europe, and the Caucasus.

"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.

Zelenskyy also signaled a major development in Ukraine's defense export ambitions, announcing that weapons exports "will become a reality" following the approval of key parameters at the state level. He described the "Drone Deal" framework as encompassing the production and supply of drones, missiles, ammunition, and other military hardware, alongside technology transfers and integration with partner defense systems.

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