Zelenskiy to France, Germany: be 'game changers'

STORY: Zelenskiy arrived in Paris for a dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz after holding talks in Britain earlier in the day where he urged his Western allies to send Ukraine warplanes to help turn the tide against Moscow.

He travels to Brussels on Thursday (February 9) where he will attend a European leaders summit.

"We have very little time... I'm talking now about the weapons needed for peace and to stop the war started by Russia," Zelenskiy said.

"France and Germany have the potential to be game changers and that's how I see our talks today. This is obvious: The sooner we get heavy long range weapons and our pilots get modern planes... the quicker this Russian aggression will end."

Western countries have scaled up their pledges of military aid for Ukraine this year with promises of hundreds of tanks and armoured vehicles as well as longer range weapons, but have so far refused to deliver Western-made combat planes.