Leaders Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovenia In Kyiv
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – As Russian troops advance towards Ukraine’s capital, the prime ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia visited Kyiv to express their support for the war-torn nation.
Footage showed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed them following a perilous train journey kept secret amid security concerns.
Czech prime minister Petr Fiala told Ukrainians, “Europe stands with you.” He stressed that “the main goal of our visit and the main message of our mission is to say to our Ukrainian friends that they are not alone.”
The leader of Poland’s ruling party said an international peacekeeping mission should be sent to operate in Ukraine.
“I think that it is necessary to have a peace mission – Nato, possibly some wider international structure – but a mission that will be able to defend itself, which will operate on Ukrainian territory,” Jaroslaw Kaczynski explained during a press conference.
“It will be a mission that will strive for peace, to give humanitarian aid, but at the same time it will also be protected by appropriate forces, armed forces,” he said.
They were the first western visitors to Kyiv since the war began two weeks ago. Zelensky was heard briefing the EU leaders on the latest military and humanitarian situation and the negotiations with Russia.
“They are shelling everywhere. Not only Kyiv but also the western areas.” He also informed the Czech, Polish, and Slovenian prime ministers, Fiala, Mateusz Morawiecki, and Janez Janša, that three Chechen brigades had been identified among the Russian forces.
Zelensky expressed gratitude for their visit, calling it a “powerful testimony of support.”
Morawiecki said in separate remarks that it is “war-torn Kyiv, that history is being made. It is here that freedom fights against the world of tyranny. It is here that the future of us all hangs in the balance.”
Missing among them was Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who faces mounting domestic pressure over his perceived cozy relation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Instead of joining the three leaders, he was busy holding a speech to hundreds of thousands of supporters on the March 15 national holiday ahead of the upcoming elections. On March 15, Hungarians recall their crushed 1848 Revolution against the Austrian Habsburg monarchy.
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