European Leaders Arrive in Kyiv in Show of Solidarity Against Russia

The leaders of France, Great Britain and Germany arrived in Ukraine on Saturday to talk to President Volodymyr Zensky, promising to increase the pressure on Russia until it accepts a stop the fire the day after a luxurious military parade in Moscow.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, ready together by train from neighboring Poland. Later, the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk would be joined.

It is the first time that the leaders of the four European nations have made a joint visit to Ukraine.

More than three years after the invasion of Russia, the greatly symbolic show of the European Unity occurs one day after President Vladimir Putin gave a challenging tone in a Moscow parade that marks the 80th brand since the victory in World War II.

The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has proposed a high unconditional fire of 30 days as a step to end the conflict. But Putin has resisted so far.

“Next to the United States, we ask Russia to remember a full and unconditional fire of 30 days to create the space for conversations about just and load peace,” the leaders said in a statement before the visit.

“We are ready to support peace conversations as soon as possible, discuss the technical implementation of Alto El Fuego and prepare for a complete peace agreement,” they added.

“We are clear that the bloodshed must end, Russia must stop its illegal invasion, and Ukraine must be able to preproduce as a safe, safe and sovereign nation of its internationally collecting borders for the coming generations.”

They warned: “We will continually increase our support to Ukraine. Until Russia accepts a durable fire, we will increase the pressure on the Russian war machine.”

In an interview with the ABC news channel on Saturday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the weapons deliveries of Ukraine allies must stop before Russia accepts a high fire.

Otherwise, a truce would be a “advantage for Ukraine” at a time when “Russian troops are advancing … quite safely” on the front, Peskov said, adding that Ucrine “was not ready for imedied negotiations.”

‘Russia that obstruct the efforts’

For Merz, who assumed the position only this week, it will be his first visit to Ukraine as Chancellor. Macron has not been in kyiv since June 2022 when he went with the Italian and German leaders of the time.

In the conversations with Zensky, they will make their “firm commitment to Ukraine,” said the statement.

“We, the leaders of France, Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom will be in kyiv in solidarity with Ukraine against the Bárbara and illegal Large Invasion of Russia,” they said.

“We reiterate our support for President Trump’s calls for a peace agreement and ask Russia to stop obstructing efforts to ensure lasting peace,” they added.

After meeting Zensky in the morning, they must organize a virtual meeting to update other European leaders on movements to create a European force that could provide Ukraine security after the war.

Such force “would help regenerate the Ukrainian armed forces after any peace agreement and strengthen confidence in any future peace,” said the statement.

‘Number of symbols’

After meeting with Tusk in France on Friday, Macron requested the rapid drawing of an American European plan for the 30 -day truce that would be supported by “mass economic sanctions” if one side “betrays it.”

The president of Finland, Alexander Stubb, said in a meeting in Norway on Friday to discuss Ukraine that “the United States has two packages of sanctions on the table” and that countries were discussion actions in the “banking and energy sector.”

Macron said that Putin’s “Beligent Comments” in the Red Square Parade showed that he remained “next to the war.” But he also said that territory conversations could be heroes once the fire begins.

Russia has occupied approximately a fifth of Ukrainian territory and has not yet responded to the pressure due to a durable fire. Trump has also said that Ukraine will have to consider renouncing the territory, but has expressed a growing impatience with Russia’s refusal to stop fighting.

The time of the visit is surprising, arriving a day after Putin received Chinese President Xi Jinping, but also the Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, whose country is a member of the EU, in the Moscow parade.

A French presidential official, who asked not to be appointed, said the visit only four days after the Merz Tok office “demonstrates the unity, strength and response capacity of Europe. And reflects Putin’s celebrations.”