KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday condemned Iran’s drone and missile attack on Israel and said his country needed help from its allies to fend off threats from the air, just as Israel did.
Zelenskiy again called on the U.S. Congress to approve a vital aid package that has been blocked by political wrangling for months. Ukraine’s forces are facing new onslaughts from Russian troops in the east and daily attacks on cities and infrastructure from Russian missiles and drones.
Writing on the social media platform X, Zelenskiy said: “Iran’s actions threaten the entire region and the world, just as Russia’s actions threaten a larger conflict, and the obvious collaboration between the two regimes in spreading terror must face a resolute and united response from the world.”
Speaking later in his nightly video address, the president said the world had seen that “Israel was not alone in its defence — the threats in the sky were also destroyed by its allies.
“And when Ukraine says allies cannot turn a blind eye to Russian missiles and drones, it means that it is necessary to act, and act strongly,” he said.
Ukraine’s skies, he said, were “not protected by rhetoric.
“And the fact that we in Ukraine have been waiting months for a vital support package – the fact that we are still waiting for a vote in Congress – testifies to the fact that the confidence of terrorists has also been growing for months,” he said.
“There is no more time to be wasted.”
Steve Scalise, majority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, said on Saturday in response to the Iranian attack that the House would change its schedule to consider legislation that supports Israel and holds Iran accountable.
It was not immediately clear to which legislation he was referring.
Iran has supplied thousands of Shahed kamikaze drones to Russia throughout its invasion of Ukraine launched in February 2022. They have been used to exhaust Ukrainian air defences and hit infrastructure far from the front lines.
Zelenskiy for months has urged Ukraine’s Western allies, particularly the United States, to summon the “political will” to provide the air defences and weaponry Ukraine needs.
The president on Saturday said Germany would supply a U.S.-made Patriot air defence system and air defence missiles to Ukraine at a “critical time”.
(Reporting by Max HunderEditing by David Goodman, Ron Popeski and Leslie Adler)
