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PARIS, May 14 (AP) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will make a surprise visit to Paris Sunday night to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron ) held talks to extend the itinerary of a multi-stop European tour that has secured new pledges of military support as his country prepares for the crisis. Counter-offensive against Russian occupying forces.
Macron’s office announced the Paris leg of Zelensky’s trip, and France sent a plane to Germany to pick up Zelensky, where he met Prime Minister Olaf Schulz earlier Sunday.
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Macron’s office said the two leaders would hold talks over dinner and that Macron would “reaffirm France’s and Europe’s unwavering support for rebuilding Ukraine’s legitimate rights and defending its fundamental interests.”
They will also discuss Ukraine’s military and humanitarian needs, as well as “longer-term prospects for a return to peace in Europe,” Macron’s office said.
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France has provided Ukraine with a range of armament, including air defense systems, light tanks, howitzers and other weapons and fuel.
Zelensky discussed his state’s planned counteroffensive with Scholz in Berlin before flying to Paris. Zelensky said the goal was to liberate Russian-occupied areas within Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders, not attack Russian territory.
The Washington Post, citing a trove of previously unpublished U.S. intelligence leaks, said Zelensky considered trying to occupy suitable areas of Russia as leverage in peace talks to end a war Moscow started in February 2022.
That would put him at odds with Western governments, which insist that the weapons they supply must not be used against targets inside Russia.
Asked about the report, Zelensky said: “We do not attack Russian territory, we liberate our own legal territory.”
“We have neither the time nor the strength (to attack Russia),” he said, according to an official translation. “And we don’t have spare weapons with which we can do that.”
“We are preparing to fight back against illegal occupation in accordance with our constitutionally established legal, internationally recognized borders,” Zelensky said.
The areas still occupied by Russia include the Crimea peninsula and parts of eastern Ukraine, which has a predominantly Russian-speaking population.
Ukraine’s president is visiting allies to find more weapons to help his country fend off a Russian invasion and to find funds to rebuild what was destroyed by more than a year of devastating conflict.
A Luftwaffe jet flew Zelensky from Rome to the German capital, where he met Pope Francis and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Saturday.
His first visit to Berlin since the start of the war came a day after the German government announced a new military aid package to Ukraine worth more than 2.7 billion euros ($3 billion), including tanks, air defense systems and ammunition.
Zelensky thanked Schulz for his political, financial and military support for Germany, saying the country is now second only to the United States in aid to Ukraine, and joked that he was working to make it the largest donor.
“German air defense systems, artillery, tanks and infantry fighting vehicles are saving Ukrainian lives and bringing us one step closer to victory. Germany is a reliable ally! Together we bring peace closer!” he tweeted after the meeting wrote on.
Schulz said that Berlin has so far provided Kiev with about 17 billion euros in bilateral aid and is expected to provide more aid in the future.
“We will support you as long as necessary,” he said, adding that it was up to Russia to withdraw its troops to end the war.
After initially hesitating to supply Ukraine with lethal weapons, Germany has become one of Ukraine’s largest suppliers of weapons, including Leopard 1 and 2 main battle tanks, and the advanced IRIS-T SLM air defense system. Modern Western hardware is considered crucial if Ukraine is to successfully mount a counteroffensive against Russian forces.
Zelensky said one reason for his recent trip to the allied capital was to create a “fighter alliance” that would provide Ukraine with the fighter jets it needs to counter Russian air supremacy.
Germany has said in the past that it does not have the F-16s that Ukraine needs, and Scholz, in response to a question about a possible delivery of the planes, referred to the air defense systems it provided to Kiev.
“That’s what we in Germany are focusing on right now,” he said.
In Ukraine, officials on Sunday denied the country had anything to do with the downing of two Russian helicopters near the border the previous day.
In a joint statement issued after the meeting, Schulz and Zelensky said they supported efforts to bring to justice those responsible for the atrocities in Ukraine and noted the ICC’s decision to send Russian President Vladimir Putin arrest warrant.
They also pledged to ensure sanctions against Russia were not circumvented and to explore the possibility of using frozen Russian assets to pay for damages caused in Ukraine.
Germany expressed support for Kiev’s efforts to join the European Union and for a 2008 vow by NATO members to pave the way for Ukraine’s eventual entry into the military alliance.
Zelensky first met the German head of state, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who was snubbed by Kiev last year, apparently because of his previous close ties to Russia, which cooled diplomatic relations between Ukraine and Germany. Both Steinmeier and Prime Minister Olaf Schulz have since visited Ukraine.
After meeting Scholz and other senior officials at the Chancellery, the two leaders flew to the western city of Aachen to accept for Zelensky the prestigious international Charlemagne Award, which is awarded to him and the people of Ukraine.
In her congratulatory message, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen compared the war in Ukraine to the fall of the Iron Curtain more than 30 years ago.
“There are moments in every generation when they must stand up for democracy and what it believes in,” she said. “For us, that moment has come.”
Zelensky accused Moscow of trying to turn back the clock of European history in the attack on Ukraine.
“Modern Russia wages war not only against us as a free and sovereign nation, but also against a united Europe as a symbol of global peace and prosperity,” he said in his acceptance speech. “This is Russia fighting for the past.”
French media reported that Zelensky planned to travel to Paris later on Sunday, but officials from the president’s and prime minister’s offices would not confirm.
Among other developments:
Five civilians were killed when an unexploded Russian shell exploded in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region, Zelensky’s top aide Andrei Yermak said on Sunday.
Overnight, Russia launched a “massive” attack on Ukraine using an Iranian-made Shahed explosive drone, injuring more than 30 people, according to the Ukrainian military.
Eighteen of the 23 drones were shot down, the military said, but the wreckage of the downed and intercepted drones damaged 50 apartment buildings, private homes and other structures, without giving further details .
Russia also attacked the western city of Ternopil and the southern city of Nikolayev with rockets, injuring an unknown number of civilians.
Two people, a 59-year-old woman and a 65-year-old man, were killed on Sunday by Russian army shelling in the Chuhuiv district of Kharkiv province in northeastern Ukraine, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov reported on Telegram.
Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on Sunday that Ukrainian troops had killed two Russian colonels in the Bakhmut region. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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