(Kyiv) On a visit to Ukraine on Sunday, the Polish president stressed the need for unity ahead of a major NATO summit next week where Kyiv hopes to see his aspirations for integration into the the Covenant.
This summit will take place just over a month after the start of a counter-offensive by Ukrainian forces on the front, which has so far achieved only modest gains in the face of strong Russian defensive lines and due to a lack of artillery ammunition.
“We are stronger together,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said on social media while in the city of Lutsk (west) with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.
PHOTO UKRAINIAN PRESIDENCY VIA AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Presidents Volodymyr Zelensky and Andrzej Duda attended a religious service at St. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Lutsk.
“Ukraine and Poland are together, united in the fight against a common enemy”, for his part indicated on Telegram the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration Andriï Yermak.
Warsaw is one of Kyiv’s main supporters within NATO and hopes, like Mr. Zelensky who has just returned from a tour of Eastern Europe and Turkey, to rally the allies around the candidacy of Ukraine.
Kyiv must receive during this summit in Vilnius on July 11 and 12 “security guarantees” from the West, but without a precise timetable for the accession process.
Washington said Ukraine still had “many steps to take” and would not receive “special treatment”. Alliance leader Jens Stoltenberg felt that membership would only be possible after the war.
Repatriated Ukrainian commanders
Volodymyr Zelensky returned from Turkey on Saturday repatriating several commanders of the Azov regiment, who were to remain in Turkey until the end of the war according to an agreement between Moscow and Kyiv.
Celebrated as heroes in Ukraine but reviled in Russia, their return to Ukraine angered the Kremlin, whose spokesman Dmitry Peskov said was “a direct violation” of the agreement.
One of the officers of this regiment close to Ukrainian ultranationalist circles, Denys Prokopenko, quoted by the Interfax-Ukraine press agency, declared immediately that he was going to return to the front.
UKRAINIAN PRESIDENCY PHOTO VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
Commander of the Azov regiment Denys Prokopenko shakes hands with Volodymyr Zelensky at the airport in Istanbul, Turkey, July 8.
“That’s why we came back to Ukraine. This is our main goal,” said Mr. Prokopenko, who, along with his other comrades-in-arms, had been living in Turkey since September.
Ahead of the NATO summit, US President Joe Biden is expected in Lithuania on Monday with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other leaders. Mr. Zelensky said he hoped to receive a “clear signal” on the possibility of his country joining the Alliance.
On Saturday, for the 500 days of the war, the Ukrainian president celebrated the “courage” of his people, in an undated video clip where he was seen on Serpents’ Island in the Black Sea, a territory symbol of resistance against in Moscow.
The war in Ukraine, which started on February 24, 2022, has killed 9,000 civilians, including 500 children, according to the UN, which estimates that the death toll could be much higher.