Tour of European capitals Volodymyr Zelensky. After the surprise visit to the United Kingdom, the stop at the Elysée to meet the French president Emmanuel Macron and the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz. The Ukrainian president is in Brussels today: the visit was taken for granted at the meeting of the ambassadors of the European Union. It is still to be understood how it will be articulated: the Ukrainian leader will certainly participate in the European Council and to an extraordinary plenary of the European Parliament, convened from 10 to 11. And on the sidelines of the Council, the Ukrainian president will have a bilateral meeting with the president of the Council, Giorgia Meloni.
Meanwhile, on the ground Bakhmut is besieged: several streets are occupied, the Wagner group and military units of the Russian army have surrounded the city from the right side and there is also progress in the direction of the highway to Konstantinovka, which is «the only communication route between the Ukrainian forces to Bakhmut and their rear”. This is the Akhmat forces version of the self-proclaimed Lugansk republic. The awareness also makes its way that at this point Bakhmut’s value has become more symbolic than strategic in the tug of war between Kiev and Moscow. At this point, a withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the city could not be ruled out. Oleksiy Danilov, the head of the Ukrainian national security council, recalled again in the past few hours that by February 24thanniversary of the attack, Vladimir Putin wants something “sensational” to show his country, and in his forecasts the Russians, who have recently focused on Donetsk in the east, will also try new attacks on Kharkiv to the north or Zaporizhzhia to the south.
To know more
The point – Zelensky: “Now welcome us into the European Union”
The background – Meloni excluded from the dinner at the Elysée with Zelensky: “Yet another slight from Macron”
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