President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi on Wednesday in the capital of Albania, Tirana, warned about the munitions crisis, which Ukraine faced in the conditions of Russian aggression, and offered the Balkan states to cooperate with his country in joint military production.

Volodymyr ZelenskyiPhoto: Pool for Yomiuri / AP / Profimedia

“More than 500 Ukrainian companies work in the defense industry, but this is not enough. We have problems with ammunition,” Zelenskyy said at the opening of the summit with the countries of Southeast Europe, which was held in Albania, according to the Spanish news agency EFE, reported by Agerpres.

“Therefore, we are interested in cooperating with you in the joint production of weapons and ammunition. We also want to organize a separate summit dedicated to the production of ammunition together with the Balkan countries,” he explained, insisting that Russian President Vladimir Putin “must lose” the war because “this is the basis of security in Europe.”

In turn, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, whose country has been supplying Ukraine with weapons and ammunition since the beginning of the war with Russia, asked for an increase in military and financial aid to Ukraine. “We cannot allow Russia to win and Ukraine to lose,” the head of the Albanian government said.

“Putin wanted to erase Ukraine from the world map in a few days, but he did not succeed (…) Ukraine’s survival depends on military and financial support. It cannot be postponed due to internal political reasons or bureaucracy,” continued the host of the summit.

Presidents of North Macedonia Stevo Pendarovski, Montenegro Jakov Milatovic, Serbia Aleksandar Vucic, President of the Republic of Moldova Maia Sandu and President of Kosovo Vjosa Osmani, Prime Ministers of Bosnia are also participating in the meeting. – Herzegovina Bojana Kristo and Croatia Andrej Plenković, as well as European Commissioner for Enlargement Oliver Vargheli.

The summit examines the consequences of the war in Ukraine for the Balkan region and the assistance that the region can offer to Kyiv, including military support.

Serbia, which participated in the summit, did not join Western sanctions against Russia, but Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic met with Zelensky several times on the sidelines of international conferences.

____

  • Follow the latest events of the war in Ukraine LIVETEXT on HotNews.ro