Top European leaders visit Kyiv amid fierce Russian attacks in the Donbas

TORETSK, Ukraine — The leaders of the European Union’s three most influential countries arrived in Ukraine on Thursday in one of the biggest displays of support for the beleaguered nation after four months of Russian assault.

The visit to Kyiv by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi took place as criticism has grown of Europe’s strategy in supporting Ukraine and after repeated pleas from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the West to deliver more and stronger weapons to aid his fighters.

Macron, who joined Draghi and Scholz to cross Ukraine’s western border by train to arrive in Kyiv, said he was there to bring a “message of unity” and “to talk both about the present and the future, because we know the coming weeks are going to be very hard.”

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis arrived separately and joined the other three European leaders as they toured Irpin — a Kyiv suburb that was among the worst-hit in the early phase of the war — before the group was scheduled to meet with Zelenskyy.

“It is an important moment,” Macron said.

Although foreign dignitaries have regularly traveled to Kyiv to express their backing of Zelenskyy, it was the first visit by the leaders of France and Germany, traditionally the EU’s two drivers, both of which have been accused by Ukraine of offering inadequate support.

Macron recently faced criticism after calling for Western leaders to avoid “humiliating” Russia. Scholz, whose nation is heavily reliant on Russian energy imports, has expressed doubts over a European Union ban on Moscow’s gas and oil.

An EU body is expected to make a recommendation Friday that Ukraine should be considered for membership in the bloc, though admission would require the approval of all 27 EU states.

The four EU leaders’ pilgrimage to Kyiv, which has remained relatively unscathed by the war in the last few weeks, came against the backdrop of an all-out Russian assault in the eastern Donbas region. The area, which borders Russia, has been the focus of Moscow’s ambitions since the late spring after its troops were beaten back from Kyiv and Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.