Zelenskiy: Little progress in talks with US on missile defenses

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that Ukraine had made little progress in talks with the United States on expanding production of missile defences and was working with Europe to solve the matter.

"Unfortunately, there has been no progress for a long time with America regarding the expansion of anti-ballistic missile production," he said in his nightly video address.

"We are trying to accelerate this work in Europe, the production of our own anti-ballistic systems on the continent in sufficient quantities."

Zelenskiy said Ukraine was continuing to talk to the United States on how it can help Ukraine and U.S. leadership was vital.

He thanked French President Emmanuel Macron for his role in developing systems and said Europe was instrumental in providing financial help for Ukraine to acquire weapons.

"Europe is helping us financially. But the leadership of the United States is also very much needed. Today it is very, very important to say this," he said.

Ukraine was grateful for U.S. expertise, he said, adding it was "very important that there are results. The same applies to diplomacy. We expect new diplomatic measures with representatives of the President of the United States of America."

U.S.-led diplomatic initiatives to move towards a settlement of the more than four-year-old war pitting Ukraine against Russia have stalled, with greater focus on the war with Iran. Zelenskiy said last week he was expecting new U.S. proposals on how to move the talks forward.

-Ron Popeski and Oleksandr Kozhukhar/Reuters