World leaders today in Ukraine, alongside Zelensky

2024-02-24 10:20:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meets with several US senators in Lviv, Ukraine February 23, 2024.

Four Western leaders arrived in Kiev on Saturday to show their support for Ukraine on the second anniversary of its invasion by Russia, which has killed tens of thousands of people and devastated the country's economy.

The prime minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, as well as that of Belgium, Alexander De Croo, traveled by train from Poland to Kiev together with the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

The purpose of their presence in Ukraine is to emphasize the West's commitment to help Ukraine, which is suffering from a growing shortage of military supplies, which is having an impact on the battlefield, where Moscow is gaining ground.

Von der Leyen wrote on the X social network that she went to Kiev "to celebrate the extraordinary resilience of the Ukrainian people".

"More than ever before, we stand strongly by Ukraine. Financially, economically, militarily, morally. Until this country is finally free," she added.

Meloni and Trudeau are expected to sign security pacts with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during their brief stay in Kiev, in line with recent multibillion-dollar deals with France and Germany.

However, US President Joe Biden's $61 billion aid package is being blocked by Republicans in the US Congress, dashing Kiev's hopes of repelling a much bigger, better and better-supplied Russian army. good.

Biden is expected to participate in a video conference with other leaders of the group of major democracies, the G7, on Saturday.

When Russian tanks and infantry rolled across the border before dawn on February 24, 2022, Ukraine's 40 million people defied expectations — as well as the Kremlin's best plan — by holding on and avoiding the defeat many expected.

Before arriving in Ukraine, Trudeau wrote in X that Canada and allies "send a clear message to [Russia]: Ukraine will not be defeated in Putin's illegal war"./ REL