Zelenskyy has for months urged partners to replenish the depleting stocks of munitions his country needs to repel attacks from Russia, which now outguns it on the battlefield 10-to-one. NATO defense ministers will meet virtually with Zelenskyy on Friday at the Ukrainian president’s request to discuss protecting Ukraine’s airspace and supplying badly needed systems.

Germany, which pledged to donate an additional Patriot system after Ukrainian officials renewed their pleas for more equipment, launched an appeal to collect Patriots for Ukraine and other air defense systems, including Samp/Ts, Nasams, Hawks and Iris-Ts.

In a letter sent to NATO allies this week and seen by Bloomberg, Baerbock and German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that recent Russian attacks on vital energy infrastructure have caused greater destruction than in the winter of 2022. “Given the situation that Ukraine is faced with, they are a matter of great urgency,” they said of the aid.

Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba, who was also present at the G7 meeting, called on American lawmakers “to support the supplemental that will literally without exaggeration help save Ukrainians from Russian missile slaughter.”

The same issue was also being discussed at the meeting in Brussels, where the mood was equally dire.

“The situation is very, very grave and we have to send them what they ask for, which is ammunition and air defense,” Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told reporters at the summit Thursday. “We just can’t afford that Ukraine is losing the war or the whole security situation in Europe is in grave danger.”

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(—With assistance from Piotr Skolimowski.)

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