The French, German and Italian leaders as well as their Romanian counterpart said on Thursday that they were ready to "immediately" grant Ukraine the status of candidate for membership of the European Union, and to support it militarily "as long as it it will be necessary ”, during an unprecedented visit to kyiv, on June 16, 2022. The Twenty-Seven must take a decision on this question unanimously at the European summit on June 23 and 24.
Arrived in kyiv in the morning by a special night train, Emmanuel Macron, Mario Draghi, and Olaf Scholz, joined by Klaus Iohannis, visited the martyr city of Irpin, before meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The point in pictures.
Directed by:
Olivier JUSZCZAK
French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi arrived in kyiv by train on Thursday morning, the first visit to Ukraine by these three European leaders since the start of the Russian invasion.
Macron, Scholz and Draghi took place together overnight from Wednesday to Thursday aboard a special train to kyiv from southeastern Poland.
Scholz and Macron were seen on the station platform, the German chancellor in jeans and a black polo...
And the French president in full, accompanied by the French ambassador to Ukraine Etienne de Poncins.
The French head of state, who assumes the rotating presidency of the European Union until June 30, declared on the platform that he had come to send "a message of European unity" and "support" to kyiv "to the both for the present and for the future”.
The three leaders were to go in the morning "to a war site where massacres were committed" during the Russian occupation of the suburbs of kyiv in March.
Gutted buildings, a car riddled with bullets and graffiti "Make Europe Not War", in a few moments, Emmanuel Macron, Olaf Scholz and Mario Draghi were able to grasp Thursday all the "barbarism" of the war in Ukraine, and its corollary, Russian war crimes.
The French president, the German chancellor and the head of the Italian government rushed, having just disembarked from a special train in kyiv, towards the martyred city of Irpin.
At the entrance to the city, charred, destroyed buildings, the windows dangling in the void in a pile of cables, line up as far as the eye can see.
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, who was traveling separately, joined them in the Ukrainian capital.
On this 113th day of war, the four European leaders begin a visit to these haunted places, accompanied by the Ukrainian Minister for Decentralization Oleksiï Tchernychov, who tells them of the desire to rebuild as quickly as possible and the first returns of inhabitants, in a hurry to find their home.
At the end of the visit, the convoys leave for the center of kyiv, heading for the Marinsky Palace, where Volodymyr Zelensky awaits them.
A handshake, and the leaders disappear for discussions away from the cameras, where the question of joining the European Union was to be central.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has "accepted an invitation" from Olaf Scholz to participate in the next G7 summit in Bavaria at the end of June, the German Chancellor said.
"All four of us support the status of immediate candidate for membership," said Macron, after a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, accompanied by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis.
"Beyond the twelve Caesars already delivered, I made the decision to deliver six additional Caesars", these self-propelled guns renowned for their precision, announced the French president during the press conference in kyiv.
Slideshow
Emmanuel Macron
Mario Draghi
Olaf Scholz
European Union (EU)
War in Ukraine
Visit
Volodymyr Zelensky