KYIV: Four Western leaders have arrived in Kyiv to express solidarity with Ukraine on the 2nd anniversary of war, which has ravaged the country’s economy.
According to AFP, the prime ministers of Canada, Italy, and Belgium —Justin Trudeau, Giorgia Meloni, and Alexander De Croo — traveled with the chief of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on an overnight train from Poland.
Trudeau and Meloni are likely to sign security agreement with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky during their brief visit, in line with deals recently agreed with Germany and France that are worth billions of dollars.
However, $61 billion in help pledged by US President Joe Biden is also being blocked by Republican lawmakers in Congress. President Biden is due to attend a video conference call of leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) on Saturday, which will be chaired by PM Meloni, with President Zelensky invited to join the talks.
Western Leaders in Kyiv to Express Support on War Anniversary
Italy also holds the rotating presidency of the G7 and arranged the call, adding it was main to challenge perceptions that the West had grown weary of the war and that Moscow was winning.
When Russian infantry and tanks streamed across the border before dawn on February 24, 2022, Ukraine’s people defied expectations — and Moscow’s best-laid plans — by holding them back and stopping a widely forecast defeat.
But as the war enters its 3rd year, setbacks on the eastern side have left the Ukraine military looking vulnerable.
Seeking to maintain Western focus on Kyiv, even as the war between Hamas and Israel dominates headlines, President Zelensky has warned that Moscow, led by President Putin, may not stop at Ukraine’s borders if Russia emerges victorious.
President Putin dismisses such claims as nonsense and casts the conflict as a wider struggle with the US, which Moscow says aims to cleave Russia apart.
