Previous visit of the leaders of 3 major countries of the European Union

Macron, Schulz and Draghi together in Kyiv

  • German Chancellor Ulf Scholz (front left) arrives at Kyiv train station with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and French President Emmanuel Macron.

    EPA

  • Macron shakes hands with Schulz, accompanied by Draghi, upon their arrival in Kyiv.

    Reuters

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French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi arrived in Kyiv yesterday, to confirm Europe's support for Ukraine, while Washington announced a billion dollars in US military aid to the war-torn country.

The three European leaders arrived at about 10.30 am, according to UAE time, according to AFP correspondents.

Then they met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss military support and Ukraine's application to join the European Union.

France, Germany and Italy support this request, but in the long term.

This visit constitutes a precedent for the leaders of three major European Union countries since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

Schulz and Macron were seen at the train station, the German chancellor in jeans and a black shirt, and Macron in a suit, accompanied by the French ambassador to Ukraine Etienne de Ponsan.

Macron, who holds the rotating presidency of the European Union until June 30, said at the station's platform that he had come to send a "message of European unity" and "support" to Kiev "for the present and for the future."

In Kyiv, the three leaders were also joined by Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, who arrived alone in the morning, according to several footage broadcast on his Twitter account.

Yesterday morning, the three leaders went to a "fighting site where massacres were committed", during the Russian occupation of the Kyiv suburbs in March, according to the French president, before meeting with President Zelensky.

Italian and German media had reported before that that the three European leaders had boarded a special train in Jyszow, Poland, as reported by the German "ZDF" station and the Italian newspaper "La Repubblica", which published pictures of the three leaders on the train.

On the departure berth in the city of Gyshov, the train crew was waiting for the delegations, carrying banners bearing the colors of the flags of France, Germany and Italy.

With the exception of the police deployed on the sidewalk, everything seemed calm.

Macron had sent signals to Kyiv on Wednesday, by visiting one of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) bases in Romania.

"I think we are at a moment when we need to send clear political signals, we the European Union, to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people while they have been showing heroic resistance for months," the French president said.

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