Leaders of Poland, Baltic countries to meet Zelenskyy in Kyiv

Berlin/Krakow, Apr 13 (EFE).- The presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are traveling to Kyiv to meet with Ukraine’s president, an advisor to the Polish leader said Wednesday.

Poland’s president Andrzej Duda, Lithuania’s president Gitanas Nausėda, president of Latvia Egils Levits and Estonian president Alar Karis were on their way to Kyiv, Duda’s head of the International Policy Bureau in the Chancellery Jakub Kumoch tweeted alongside a photo for the four.

“Our countries thus show support to brother Ukraine and its president (Volodymyr Zelenskyy),” he added.

The visit comes after a meeting Tuesday in Warsaw between Duda and German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who intended to join the trip, but whose presence he said was rejected by Kyiv.

The purpose of the visit was to send “a strong signal of joint European solidarity with Ukraine,” Steinmeier told reporters in Poland.

“I was ready to do that, but apparently (…) that was not wanted by Kyiv,” he added.

Steinmeier has been strongly criticized by Ukraine for his years of close ties with Moscow, especially as foreign minister, and over his adherence to the Nord Stream pipeline, the mainstay of Germany’s current dependence on Russian gas.

Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, declared Tuesday night that a visit by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who has been calling for a ban on imports of Russian coal, gas and oil, would be welcome in his country, plus more weapons supplies. EFE

gc/tw