Zelenskyy returns to Ukraine after brief visits to US, Poland
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine declared Friday that Ukraine was “working toward victory,” buoyed by his hero’s welcome in Washington and a brief visit to Poland in a sprint of diplomacy aimed at thanking his country’s most robust allies and cementing their support.
Zelenskyy was back in Kyiv after his trip, which has boosted morale in a country where millions have been plunged into darkness and cold from Russian missile strikes that have knocked out power as winter sets in.
“I am in my office,” he said in a video posted to his channel on the Telegram social media app early Friday. “We are working toward victory.”
Western allies have pumped aid into Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, and the U.S. House of Representatives gave final approval Friday to nearly $50 billion in additional assistance to the country.
On Friday, Zelenskyy specifically thanked the Netherlands for a promise of about $2.7 billion.
“We keep working together to increase defense capability, energy stability & restore critical infrastructure,” he posted on Twitter.
In a brief evening address Thursday while en route home, he expressed satisfaction with his landmark visit to Washington, insisting that it had yielded “good results” that “will really help” with Ukraine’s ongoing war effort.
Before returning to Ukraine, Zelenskyy stopped in Poland, where he met for two hours with Polish President Andrzej Duda near the airport in Rzeszow, a major transit point for Western weapons flowing into neighboring Ukraine and for refugees fleeing from Ukraine.
The location of the meeting, held one day after Zelenskyy met President Joe Biden at the White House, was kept secret for security reasons. Video of his arrival at the Rzeszow airport showed Zelenskyy bounding down the steps of his plane dressed in green cargo pants, heavy boots and a military-style winter jacket.
Zelenskyy’s return comes amid relentless Russian artillery, rocket and mortar fire as well as airstrikes on the eastern and southern fronts and elsewhere in Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the war would end at the negotiating table once the “special military operation” achieves “the goals that the Russian Federation has set,” adding that “significant headway has been made on demilitarization of Ukraine.”
The Kremlin spokesman said no reported Ukrainian peace plan can succeed without taking into account “the realities of today that can’t be ignored” — a reference to Moscow’s demand that Ukraine recognize Russia’s sovereignty over the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed in 2014, as well as other territorial gains.
At least six civilians were killed and 18 others were wounded in Russian attacks on eight regions in Ukraine’s south and east in the past 24 hours, according to Ukrainian officials.