President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy intends to attend the D-Day celebrations next month in France and then the G7 meeting in Italy. This was reported by Politico, citing two informed people, UNN reported.
The newspaper notes that Zelensky's plans are particularly noteworthy as he recently canceled foreign trips after Russia launched a major offensive on the city of Kharkiv. But Ukraine also desperately needs continued support and global attention, and this trip will give him time with world leaders, including President Joe Biden, to discuss his country's interests.
The Ukrainian president's schedule is always subject to change, the sources emphasized. But if all goes according to plan, Zelenskiy is expected to use the trip to call, as he has in recent interviews, for more Western military support and to ask NATO to shoot down Russian missiles, as the United States and Britain did when Iran attacked Israel. Zelenskiy will also demand that the United States and European countries confiscate Russian assets to help fund Ukraine's defense and eventual reconstruction.
Зеленський скасував візит до Португалії та Іспанії – ЗМІ 15.05.24, 09:54
Politico notes that the presence of the Ukrainian leader in France will have a huge symbolic resonance. World leaders will gather on the Normandy coast, where 80 years ago nearly 133,000 troops from the United States, Britain, and allied nations landed on the European mainland to defeat Nazi Germany - the largest amphibious invasion in military history. The event will honor the sacrifices it took to thwart Adolf Hitler's march as his troops swept across the continent before facing stiff resistance from democracies and the Soviet Union.
"At the American cemetery, Zelenskiy will stand alongside Biden, Western leaders and a Russian representative as the head of a country that is threatened with being wiped off the map. Biden, who will use the moment to speak passionately in defense of democracy around the world, is sure to brag about how he rallied allies to Ukraine's cause after Russian Vladimir Putin ordered a full invasion," Politico writes.
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According to the newspaper, Zelenskyy plans to travel to Italy for the G7 afterward. For several months, the group's members have been debating the feasibility of using hundreds of billions of confiscated Russian assets to bolster Ukraine's defense and economy, citing legal conundrums and fears that Moscow could do the same to Western countries. The United States and the United Kingdom have strongly supported this idea, while some European members, such as Germany, are more skeptical.
This issue stirred up a previous meeting of G7 finance ministers, where European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde strongly opposed the complete seizure of Russian assets for a loan to Ukraine.
Zelenskiy would likely use the opportunity with heads of state and government to try to convince those who doubt him.
"If there is $300 billion in the world, why not use it?" he said in January.