MOSCOW — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude to the Netherlands on Friday for a new package of aid, following a visit by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

Speaking in his daily video message, Zelenskyy put the value of the arms deliveries at €2 billion ($2.17 billion) for the current year.

“It’s a very specific, very powerful support. And it is this year that we must achieve results that will allow us to bring an end to the war on fair terms,” Zelenskyy said.

He said that the Netherlands was helping to secure the skies over Ukraine with its participation in the coalition of states supplying Kyiv with F-16 fighter jets.

The defense package was part of a security agreement signed by Rutte and Zelenskyy in the badly damaged city of Kharkiv on Friday.

It is the seventh agreement of this kind between Ukraine and a Western state.

“I also want to thank you for every package of defense support, for the leadership of the Netherlands in defense coalitions, for the much-needed assistance in consolidating Europe and the entire free world so that we can stand firm and defend our state, defend our people. And to be able to realize the path to peace,” Zelenskyy told Rutte.

“Stopping Russia is our common duty,” he added.

Ukraine has been heavily reliant on Western support in its two-year defense against the Russian invasion.

The pressure is on Kyiv after Russia has started to make some gains in recent weeks and test Ukrainian forces on the front line.

According to the Ukrainian military, Russia launched attacks on several points, particularly to the west and southwest of the industrial city of Donetsk.

In the Avdiivka area north of Donetsk, 20 Russian attacks were repelled, the Ukrainians said. Just a few weeks ago, Kyiv was forced to evacuate the fortified area around Avdiivka after months of bitter fighting.

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