The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Euro leaders back Ukraine bid to join EU
The leaders of four EU nations visited Ukraine yesterday vowing to back Kyiv’s bid to become an official candidate to join the bloc.
In the face of Kyiv’s fears that Western resolve to help it could wane, the visit by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholtz, Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis carried heavy symbolic weight.
After arriving in Kyiv to the sound of air raid sirens, the leaders headed to Irpin where many civilians were killed earlier in the war.
While shocking images of the devastation have rallied Western support, officials in Ukraine have expressed fears “war fatigue” could eventually erode that.
Governor Serhiy Haidai of Luhansk, which is also part of the Donbas, said the visit would not yield progress if the leaders ask Ukraine to sign a peace treaty with Russia that involves giving up territory.
“I am sure that our president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is not going to make concessions and trade our territories. If someone wants to stop Russia by giving them territories, Germany has Bavaria, Italy has Tuscany, the French can concede Provence, for instance,” he said.
Mr Macron, Mr Scholz and Mr Draghi, representing the three largest economies in the European Union, have been criticised for not visiting Kyiv sooner.
A number of other European leaders have already made the long trip overland to show solidarity with a nation under attack, even in times when the fighting raged closer to the capital than it does now.
Mr Macron responded to criticism of France’s response, including his recent comment that Russia shouldn’t be “humiliated”, which deeply angered Ukrainians. He insisted: “France has been at Ukraine’s side since the first day.”
His office also released a list of the dates of all his conversations with Mr Zelensky.
They have spoken by phone on 23 occasions since the war began and Mr Macron spoke with Mr Putin 11 times, including three times with Mr Scholz.
Scholz had long resisted travelling to Kyiv, saying he did not want to “join the queue of people who do a quick in-out for a photo opportunity”, adding that the trip should focus on doing “concrete things”.
On Wednesday, Germany announced it will provide Ukraine with three multiple-launch rocket systems of the kind that Kyiv has said it urgently needs.
Tamara Malko, a resident of the Donetsk region that is part of the Donbas, said Mr Macron and Mr Scholz had been “very cold” toward Ukrainians so far, and hoped for a change.
“We want peace very much, and have high hopes for Macron and Scholz,” she said. “We want them to see and understand our pain.”