Zelensky Visits Poland as Ukraine Pursues Support for Offensive

Matthew Luxmoore

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KYIV, Ukraine—Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Poland Wednesday as Kyiv continues to press Western allies for military and financial support as it gears up for a counteroffensive to try to oust Russian forces occupying swaths of its territory.

Mr. Zelensky’s visit to Polish capital Warsaw is the first foreign trip by the Ukrainian leader announced in advance by Kyiv, after recent trips to the U.S. and several European capitals that were kept secret for security considerations. Poland’s President Andrzej Duda awarded Mr. Zelensky the Order of the White Eagle, the country’s highest civilian award, while the Ukrainian leader, dressed in his familiar military attire, encouraged Polish businesses to invest in the reconstruction of Ukrainian’s devastated infrastructure.

The visit comes amid a flurry of diplomacy aimed at expediting a possible outcome to the continuing war in Ukraine, which is straining the limits of Western support and creating pressure on Mr. Zelensky to find a swift military solution or come to the negotiating table with Russia.

Zelensky Visits Poland, Urges More Military Support for UkrainePlay video: Zelensky Visits Poland, Urges More Military Support for Ukraine

Photo: Wojtek Radwanski/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

During a trip to China this week, French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to press Chinese leader Xi Jinping to limit support for Russia in its war against Ukraine, as Western concerns grow over Beijing’s deepening economic and political ties with Moscow. Speaking to reporters the day before the meeting, Mr. Macron said it wasn’t in China’s interest to see a prolonged war in Ukraine and warned off Beijing from supplying arms or other war materiel to Russia.

“Anyone who assists the aggressor would put themselves in the position of being complicit in a breach of international law,” Mr. Macron said.

In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the new U.S. ambassador that Washington was responsible for the war in Ukraine and said the U.S. was pursuing a foreign policy that had intentionally destabilized the world.

Mr. Putin made his comments during a credentialing ceremony for new foreign ambassadors, including U.S. Ambassador Lynne Tracy, who wasn’t given an opportunity to respond.

The front lines of the war in Ukraine have been largely static for weeks as Russia continues its costly campaign to seize the city of Bakhmut and Kyiv receives heavy weapons promised by the West ahead of its counteroffensive.

Mr. Zelensky, speaking to reporters in Poland on Wednesday, called the battle over Bakhmut “the most difficult situation,” and urged more and faster weapons shipments from Kyiv’s Western partners to help Ukraine push back Russian forces.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in combat gear, met Poland’s President Andrzej Duda on Wednesday in Warsaw.PHOTO: MARCIN OBARA/SHUTTERSTOCK

Explosions rang out on Wednesday morning in Melitopol, a Russian-occupied city in south Ukraine that Kyiv has its sights on retaking in the military campaign expected to begin in earnest later this spring or in early summer.

Ivan Fedorov, the exiled mayor of Melitopol, said the blasts occurred in a part of the city where a train depot and a military airstrip are located. “The enemy has once again certainly suffered losses, their firepower has certainly been impacted,” he said in a TV interview, adding that details are still being established.

The attacks on Melitopol come just two days after an apparent car bomb left Russian-installed official Maksym Zubarev with serious injuries, with Kyiv reporting that he had lost an arm and a leg in the blast. Kyiv didn’t claim responsibility for the attack, but it has stated on several occasions that Ukrainian partisans are working in Russian-occupied areas.

Mr. Fedorov said Russia this week was mining fields along the front lines in the surrounding Zaporizhzhia region as it steels itself for a possible Ukrainian assault. Local residents were reporting that an armored minelaying vehicle was working in the area, he said.

“At a time when our farmers are sowing high-quality wheat in our fields, the terrorist-occupiers can only sow hatred and fear,” Mr. Fedorov wrote on Telegram. Authorities in Russia, which claims the Zaporizhzhia region as part of its own territory, didn’t comment on Mr. Fedorov’s claim.

The front-line town of Avdiivka, on the outskirts of the occupied regional capital of Donetsk, has long been a target for Moscow and is largely destroyed.PHOTO: GENYA SAVILOV/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

Local residents in Avdiivka in the Donetsk region on Tuesday. The front lines of the war in Ukraine have been largely static for weeks.PHOTO: GENYA SAVILOV/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

In his nightly video address on Tuesday evening, ahead of his visit to Warsaw, Mr. Zelensky praised Finland’s official accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a historic security-policy shift that was prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and which has spurred a furious response from the Kremlin.

The speed with which Finland’s NATO membership was ratified and implemented is a lesson for Ukraine, which has been advocating for its inclusion in the military bloc for years, Mr. Zelensky said.

“Russian aggression has proved without doubt that only collective guarantees, only preventive guarantees can be relied on,” he said. “The day will come when security will be guaranteed for our country too.”

Ukraine is unlikely to join the security alliance soon however, primarily because Kyiv is at war with Russia, and membership would put NATO in direct conflict with Moscow, something NATO leaders are eager to avoid.

Alliance leaders have instead been debating how to show more support to Ukraine without promising too much or delivering a propaganda victory to Russia, which claims that NATO is already fighting a proxy war via Ukraine. NATO members have so far delivered more than $70 billion in military aid to Ukraine, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday, with much of that coming from the U.S.