Four European leaders yesterday made a high-profile visit to show their support for Ukraine, denouncing the brutality of the Russian invasion as they surveyed the ruins of a Kyiv suburb that was the scene of intense fighting early in the war and where many civilians were killed.
After arriving in Kyiv to the sound of air raid sirens, the leaders of France, Germany, Italy and Romania headed to Irpin, which was seized and briefly held by Russian troops along with other areas near the capital. Mass graves have been unearthed in the area, most notably in Bucha, and French President Emmanuel Macron decried the massacres and said there were signs of war crimes.
He denounced the “barbarism” of the attacks that devastated Irpin, and praised the courage of its residents and others in the region who helped thwart Russia’s attempt to overrun the capital.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The visit, which included a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, carries heavy symbolic weight as the three Western European powers have faced criticism for continuing to engage with Russian President Vladimir Putin — and failing to provide Ukraine with the scale of weaponry that it says is necessary to fend off the Russians.
Western arms were key to Ukraine’s surprising success in preventing the Russians from taking the capital — but officials have said much more will be needed if they are to drive Moscow’s forces out.
NATO defense ministers yesterday met in Brussels to consider more military aid for Ukraine, and many in Ukraine hoped that the leaders’ visit could mark a turning point by opening the way to significant new arms supplies.
Photo: Reuters
Ahead of the meeting with Zelenskiy, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz observed that officials must keep the destruction in mind in all their decisions.
“Innocent civilians have been hit, houses have been destroyed; a whole town has been destroyed in which there was no military infrastructure at all,” Scholz said. “And that says a great deal about the brutality of the Russian war of aggression, which is simply out for destruction and conquest. We must bear that in mind in everything that we decide.”
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said during the tour of Irpin that Ukraine’s backers would rebuild “everything” with European help.
“They destroyed the nurseries, the playgrounds, and everything will be rebuilt,” Draghi said.
Macron, Scholz and Draghi, representing the three largest economies in Europe, traveled to Kyiv together on a special overnight train provided by the Ukrainian authorities. Romanian President Klaus Iohannis arrived on a separate train.
After viewing Irpin, Iohannis wrote on Twitter that there are “no words to describe the unimaginable human tragedy and horrible destruction,” and called for “all Russian perpetrators to be held responsible by the international criminal justice” system.
The Russian forces are pressing their offensive in the eastern Donbas region, slowly, but steadily gaining ground on the badly outnumbered and outgunned Ukrainian forces, who are pleading for more arms from Western allies.
Several air raid sirens rang out while the European leaders were in their hotel preparing for the rest of their visit, and Kyiv authorities urged people to seek shelter. Such alerts are a frequent occurrence.
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