Britain will announce hundreds more short-range missiles into Ukraine ahead of the summit, where Zelensky will request authorization to use Western-provided weapons to strike targets in Russia.
At the opening of the summit on Friday at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, Ukraine’s president made another passionate call for further military support.
He said the eastern region of Donetsk, where Kiev’s forces are facing Russian attacks, was particularly dependent on the rapid delivery of aid.
The summit will also be attended by UK Defense Secretary John Healey, who will confirm a package worth £162 million, including the supply of 650 Lightweight Multi-mission Missiles (LMM).
He said the new package would provide a “significant boost” to Ukraine’s air defense capabilities and showed the government was “stepping up” support.
But Professor Michael Clark, the former director of the Royal United Services Institute, a defense and security think tank, told BBC Radio 4’s Today program that supplies could “be exhausted within months”.
He said Ukraine “needs more at the moment” given the intensity of Russian offensives and bombings.
According to its manufacturer Thales, the LMM is lightweight, accurately guided, has low collateral damage and has a range of more than 6 kilometers. Hundreds have already arrived in Ukraine.
In July, British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer pledged to provide 3 billion pounds of aid to Ukraine every year for as long as it is needed.
Since the Russian invasion began in February 2022, the UK has pledged a total of £12.7 billion, including £7.6 billion in military support.
Meanwhile, the United States, Kyiv’s biggest military backer, said it would provide a further $250 million (£189.9 million) in military aid.
Mr Zelensky arrived in Ramstein on Friday morning, a few days later Russian missile strikes the city of Poltava in central Ukraine, killing at least 51 people.
In an appeal to international allies, he said: “It is important that every support package announced is put on the battlefield immediately without any delay.
“The fight in the Donetsk region depends on this – if [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has achieved nothing here, and he will not achieve anything anywhere.
Zelensky also called on Western allies to authorize the use of long-range missiles to attack targets in Russia, saying this was the only way to end the war.
He said in a direct appeal: “Now we hear that your long-range policy has not changed. We believe it is a mistake to take such a step. We need this long-range capability not only in the occupied territories of Ukraine; Occupy territory to build this long-range capability.
Britain previously said Ukraine had a “clear right” to use British-supplied weapons in “self-defence” following last month’s surprise cross-border incursion in Kiev, which “does not exclude operations on Russian soil”.
However, this does not include the use of long-range Storm Shadow missiles on territory outside Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders.
The United States provided Ukraine with long-range missiles earlier this year, but like Kiev’s other Western allies, the missiles have not yet been authorized to attack targets in Russia.