Leaders clear path for Ukraine to EU
Nations offer more military aid, pledge to back membership
KYIV, Ukraine — Four European leaders expressed their support for Ukraine on Thursday while meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, vowing to back Kyiv’s candidacy to eventually join the European Union and offering more weapons to fend off Russia’s invasion.
French President Emmanuel Macron promised Ukraine six more truckmounted artillery guns, the latest in a new round of Western arms pledges as the war grinds on in the Donbas region in the east.
France, Germany, Italy and Romania “are doing everything so that Ukraine alone can decide its fate,” Macron said at a news conference with Zelenskyy and the others.
“My colleagues and I have come here to Kyiv today with a clear message: Ukraine belongs to the European family,” said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Amid Ukrainian fears that Western resolve could wane, the visit carried heavy symbolism.
France, Germany and Italy have all faced criticism for continuing to engage with Russian President Vladimir Putin — and failing to give Kyiv the weaponry it says its needs.
With Scholz beside him, Macron defended earlier comments that riled Ukrainians about not humiliating Russia, solemnly noting how the end of World War I had sown the seeds of World War II.
“We are side by side today with Chancellor Scholz. One hundred years ago, we were at war and allies helped France win. France committed a historic mistake. It lost the peace because it wanted
to humiliate Germany. The question of humiliation I always placed in a context to come, not the current context,” he said.
“Today, this war must be won, France clearly supports Ukraine so it prevails,” Macron said. “Germany, like France, will never be in situations where they negotiate on Ukraine’s behalf with Russia. Moreover, we have never done that.”
In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy said it was important for him to hear that European leaders “agree the end of the war and peace for Ukraine should be as Ukraine sees them.”
He said Ukrainians will continue to fight for all of their land.
Ukrainians and some of their European neighbors have been afraid that Western powers might press for territorial concessions for the sake of peace.
Scholz reiterated that there is no such intent to dictate anything to Ukrainians, and that only they “can decide what is right in terms of an agreement on a peace, which we are unfortunately very, very far away from.”
Italian Premier Mario Draghi expressed concern about millions of tons of grain backed up in Black Sea ports by the war, saying it could bring “worldwide catastrophe.”
Italy has been a first destination for African migrants and could find itself overwhelmed as a result of largescale hunger in the Southern
Hemisphere.
“We want the atrocities to stop and we want peace,” Draghi said. “But Ukraine must defend itself, and it will be Ukraine that chooses the peace it wants.”
The leaders also visited Irpin, a Kyiv suburb that saw intense fighting and where many civilians were killed. They decried the destruction there, with Macron saying he saw signs of “war crimes.”
The war has increased pressure on EU governments to fast-track Ukraine’s candidate status, and Thursday’s pledge to support candidacy status for Ukraine and neighboring Moldova pushes the 27-nation union closer to doing so.
But the process is expected to take years,
and EU members remain divided over how quickly and fully to open their arms to new members.
European allies have sent increasingly powerful weapons and rallied around Ukraine more than many expected, approving waves of unprecedented sanctions against Russia that also are badly squeezing Europe’s economy.
Ukrainians say more is needed as Russia presses an offensive in the Donbas, slowly gaining ground on the outmanned and outgunned Ukrainian forces.
Macron, Scholz and Draghi, representing the EU’s three largest economies, traveled to Kyiv together on an overnight train. They had been criticized for not visiting sooner.
Air raid sirens wailed soon after they arrived.
President Klaus Iohannis of Romania, which borders Ukraine and has been a key destination for its refugees, arrived on a separate train.
Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president who is now deputy head of the Kremlin Security Council, dismissed the European leaders as “connoisseurs of frogs, liver and pasta,” and said their visit brought no benefit.
“Again they promised EU membership and old howitzers, slammed down some vodka and, like 100 years ago, took the train home,” he tweeted. “And that’s all good. It’s just that this doesn’t bring Ukraine any closer to peace. And the clock is ticking.”