Zelensky arrived in Brussels to participate in the EU summit

Ukraine’s President Volodimir Zelensky meets with European Parliament President Roberta Metsola during a summit in Brussels, Belgium February 9, 2023. Philippe Buissin/European Union 2023/Handout via REUTERS

Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky arrived in Brussels to participate in a European Union (EU) summit in Brussels on Thursday.

Amid massive security in the Belgian capital, Zelensky’s agenda includes meeting with EU leaders.

“Welcome home, welcome to the EU,” the head of the European Council, Charles Michel, told him.

The president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, received the Ukrainian president at the entrance of the authorities of the Eurochamber, where Zelensky was acclaimed in the street with cheers, before heading towards the chamber.

“This Parliament has been with Ukraine since day one and what we will confirm today is that we will continue to be with Ukraine until victory,” Metsola told reporters shortly before Zelensky’s arrival.

It is the third time that the Ukrainian president has addressed the European Parliament since the start of the war, after a speech on March 1 by videoconference a few days after the invasion and another to thank the Sakharov Prize awarded by the institution to the people Ukrainian last December.

In a message on Twitter, Metsola celebrated today that Zelensky “addresses the European people from the house of European democracy” in a day that he called “historic for Europe”.

The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola. REUTERS/Johanna Geron/File Photo

After his address in the European Parliament, Zelensky will travel to the headquarters of the European Council, where EU leaders hold a summit focused on Ukraine and on economic and migration issues.

This meeting between the Twenty-seven is expected to last an hour and a half and between 12:00 and 14:00 (between 11:00 and 13:00 GMT) there will be time for the European leaders to meet with the Ukrainian president bilaterally.

The Ukrainian leader visited Britain and France on Wednesday, making his second trip abroad since the Russian invasion began almost a year ago.

His presence at the EU summit will be “a sign of European solidarity,” declared German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who joined the meeting on Wednesday night in Paris between Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Earlier, the Ukrainian leader met British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in London, visited Parliament and met with King Charles III.

In both appointments his message was the same: more weapons, especially fighter jets and long-range missiles, as well as faster deliveries.

“The sooner Ukraine has long-range heavy weapons, the sooner our pilots have planes, the sooner this Russian aggression will end and we can return to peace in Europe,” Zelensky declared at the Elysee Palace.

Both Emmanuel Macron and Zelensky traveled together this Thursday from Paris to Brussels to participate in the summit.

The two leaders took off from Villacoublay, near Paris, at 08:30 (local time).

His presence at the EU summit will be “a sign of European solidarity,” declared German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who joined the meeting on Wednesday night in Paris between Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron. (Reuters)

Macron told Zelensky that France is “determined to help Ukraine until victory” and ready to continue delivering weapons. And Scholz assured that the allies will support Ukraine “as long as it takes”.

In London, together with Sunak, Zelensky stressed “the importance of Ukraine receiving the necessary weapons from the allies to stop the Russian offensive.”

Then, in front of British parliamentarians gathered in a packed Westminter Hall, the huge room where Elizabeth II’s funeral was held in September, he insisted that these must include hunts.

“I ask you and the world for simple but very important words: fighter jets for Ukraine, wings for freedom,” he said.

“We are not excluding anything,” including the delivery of planes, Sunak said after visiting with Zelensky a military center in Dorset, in southern England, where the British army trains Ukrainian soldiers.

Sunak indicated that the British Challenger 2 tanks promised by London will be operational “next month” on Ukrainian soil.

Sunak indicated that the British Challenger 2 tanks promised by London will be operational “next month” on Ukrainian soil. (Reuters)

Germany recently agreed to send main battle tanks and on Tuesday announced together with the Netherlands and Denmark that they will deliver “at least 100 Leopard 1 A5 tanks” in “the next few months.” But other countries that have pledged appear to be dragging their feet.

Since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, Zelensky had only left Ukraine to visit the United States in December.

Experts agree that Russia is preparing a major offensive for late winter or early spring, with the aim of conquering the entirety of Donbas, which it now partially occupies.

Updated maps of Russia that include Ukrainian regions it claims to have annexed: Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Lugansk and Donetsk went on sale in Moscow bookstores on Tuesday.

The UK, hitherto reluctant to supply Ukraine with Typhoon and F-35 fighter jets, has said it will look into that possibility, though it does not see it as immediate.

“The prime minister has instructed the defense minister to look at what aircraft we could provide, but this is clearly a long-term solution rather than a short-term capability, which is what Ukraine needs most right now,” a spokesman said.

The UK, hitherto reluctant to supply Ukraine with Typhoon and F-35 fighter jets, has said it will look into that possibility, though it does not see it as immediate.

Russia promised “a response to any hostile measures taken by the British side,” according to a statement released by the country’s news agencies.

London will pay the responsibility of a “bloody harvest” as well as the “political and military consequences that result”, he said.

Last week, Sunak considered that Ukrainian pilots would need “months” or even “years” to learn how to fly the fighters used by NATO countries.

But on Wednesday he proposed expanding the training he already offers to Ukrainian troops in the UK “by extending it to fighter pilots to ensure that Ukraine can defend its airspace in the future.”

Britain has provided 2.3 billion pounds ($2.8 billion) in military aid to Ukraine in 2022 and has pledged to maintain the same level this year.

Coinciding with Zelensky’s visit, the British government, which has already sanctioned more than 1,300 Russian individuals and entities since the invasion of Ukraine, strengthened those sanctions to include “six entities supplying military material” and “eight individuals and one entity linked to financial networks” close to the Kremlin.

(With information from AFP)

Keep reading:

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