Stefanchuk met with a delegation of members of the US Congress: they talked about the F-16, additional air defense and Russian attacks

Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk held a meeting with a delegation of members of the US Congress, he said on Facebook.

“He emphasized once again that Ukraine highly values ​​the bipartisan and bicameral support of the Congress. He thanked the United States for the unprecedented, comprehensive and permanent assistance provided to Ukraine to fight against Russian aggression. Especially for defense support,” he noted.

According to the speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, “in recent weeks, Russia has significantly increased its terror, killing civilians, shelling and destroying Ukrainian critical infrastructure, including civilian ones.”

“So I outlined Ukraine’s urgent needs, primarily additional air defense systems,” he added.

Stefanchuk emphasized that “it is critical for Ukraine to be able to strike military targets on the territory of the Russian Federation with American weapons.”

“We discussed the importance of creating a coalition of states that would be ready to shoot down Russian missiles and UAVs over the territory of Ukraine. They also raised the issue of supplying additional F-16 aircraft, the need to shorten the training period and increase the number of places for training Ukrainian pilots and engineers,” the speaker noted.

Earlier, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived in Warsaw from Kyiv, where he met with the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian leaders, and also took part in the Crimean Platform summit. Ukraine is asking the United States and other Western partners to give consent to the use of their weapons deep into the territory of Russia, as of September 12, such official permission has not yet been received.