As President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Ukraine’s capital on Thursday, he mentioned he was coming with “a message of unity.”
Flanked by Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany and Prime Minister Mario Draghi of Italy, the French chief — who has positioned himself as Europe’s central interlocutor with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to attempt to discover an finish to the warfare — mentioned the three had come “to speak each in regards to the current and the long run, as a result of we all know the approaching weeks are going to be very arduous.”
“It is a crucial second,” Mr. Macron advised reporters on a platform of the Kyiv prepare station shortly after disembarking.
They’re the newest world leaders to make the journey to the Kyiv since Russian forces failed of their bid to shortly topple Ukraine’s authorities and seize the capital.
Till Thursday morning, the French, German and Italian authorities had declined to verify the extensively speculated journey, shrouding it in secrecy. Particulars of the in a single day journey, on a particular prepare chartered by the Ukrainian authorities, had been supplied by the French presidency and by an Agence France-Presse reporter onboard.
The prepare left from an nondescript platform, made partly of grime and nibbled by weeds, in an equally nondescript and unidentified prepare station.
In photos taken by journalists on the prepare, the three leaders appeared relaxed and smiling. Mr. Macron, Mr. Scholz and Mr. Draghi held a late-night, 90-minute assembly in Mr. Macron’s prepare automotive over snacks and orange juice, with out their respective advisers.
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