Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned allies Saturday that low ammunition supplies could give Russia breathing room to regroup against Ukraine, highlighting the need for artillery and long-range weapons after his military chief announced he was withdrawing troops from the eastern city of Avdiivka.

During his address at the Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering of security and foreign policy officials, Zelenskyy said Ukraine is back on the defensive against Russia in the nearly 2-year-old war, due to an “artificial deficit” of arms for Ukraine.

“We’re just waiting for weapons that we’re short of,” he said, pointing to a lack of long-range armaments.

“Ukrainians have proven that we can force Russia to retreat,” Zelenskyy said. “We can get our land back, and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin can lose, and this has already happened more than once on the battlefield.”

After a meeting with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Ukrainian president and Harris held a joint news conference in Munich. The U.S. vice president said, “It is in the strategic interest of the United States to continue our support.”

Zelenskyy echoed Harris’s comments that the aid package for Ukraine stuck in Congress “is vital” to Ukraine’s war effort, and he stressed that Kyiv is counting on the U.S. to remain a “strategic partner.”

Also at the conference, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg emphasized that the delay in approval of the Ukraine aid package by the U.S. Congress has a direct impact on Ukraine’s defense.

“Every week we wait means that there will be more people killed on the front line in Ukraine,” he said.

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, whose country directly borders Russia, said, “If America isolates itself, it eventually is going to cost you more,” warning that if “aggression pays off somewhere, it serves as an invitation to use it elsewhere, jeopardizing global security.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose country is Ukraine’s second-biggest military supplier after the U.S., renewed his call for other European countries to step up with more deliveries and pointed to America’s military aid since the war began.

“A comparable effort must be the least that every European country also does,” he said.

Avdiivka retreat

Reacting to the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the southeastern city of Avdiivka — Zelenskyy said that the retreat ordered by Ukrainian commander Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi was “a correct decision,” emphasizing the priority of saving Ukrainian soldiers’ lives.

He suggested that Russia has achieved little, however, adding that it has been attacking Avdiivka “with all the power that they had” since October and lost thousands of soldiers — “that’s what Russia has achieved. It’s a depletion of their army.”

Syrskyi, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, posted Friday on Facebook that the troops were moved “to avoid encirclement and preserve the lives and health of service personnel.”

Capturing the eastern city is seen as key to Moscow’s aim of securing full control of the two provinces that make up the industrial Donbas region and could hand Putin, who recently underlined its significance, a battlefield victory as he seeks reelection next month.

Biden on Ukraine aid

During a White House press briefing Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden stressed the significance of continuing U.S. military support for Ukraine against Russia and noted that although a bipartisan Senate voted in favor of funding Ukraine’s war against Russia, the House of Representatives has not yet done so.

“History is watching the House of Representatives. That failure to support Ukraine at this critical moment will never be forgotten. It’s going to go down [in] the pages of history. It really is, it’s consequential. The clock is ticking. And this has to happen. We have to help now. You know, we have to realize what we’re dealing with,” Biden said.

Long-term security pacts

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy signed a new long-term security pact with France on Friday, calling it “an ambitious, very substantive security agreement.”

“This is not an alternative to the United States. We are all together, and this union is necessary to defeat Russia,” Zelenskyy told reporters alongside French President Emmanuel Macron.

The 10-year security pact with France includes commitments by Paris to deliver more arms, train soldiers and send up to $3.2 billion in military aid to Ukraine in 2024.

“By helping our Ukrainian partner, we are investing in our security,” said the French president.

Earlier Friday, during a visit to Berlin, the Ukrainian president and his German counterpart, Scholz, signed a similar 10-year security pact ensuring Germany’s continuing military support of Ukraine. Berlin also committed to sanctions and export controls against Russia and to keeping Russian assets frozen.

Scholz described the long-term security accord as a “historic step.”

Ukraine also signed a bilateral agreement last month with Britain.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.