A visit from Prince Harry to Ukraine this week brought a soft power to Kiev’s last promise of military aid, even when the American envoy Steve Witkoff prepared to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
In a meeting in Brussels, the allies of the NATO of Ukraine promised additional financial assistance of $ 23 billion to the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who on Thursday accused Russia of recruiting systems to Chinese citizens to fight in the first line of the war that has been fighting against Ukraine for three years.
The war has claimed the life of at least 46,000 Ukrainian troops and wounded or mutilated almost 400,000 more, Zelenskyy said to NBC News in February.
After visiting London from his home in California to appear in his judicial case related to the security against the British government, the Duke of Sussex met Thursday with some of the living victims of the war in the western city of Lvvv.
A Harry spokesman told NBC News that the Duke himself, he wanted to see the support and rehabilitation services provided to the Ukrainians. On his tour of the Superhuman center, he joined the veterans of the Invictus Games Foundation, a beneficial organization of wounded veterans that he founded.
Zelenskyy and his military leaders have warned in recent days that Putin’s forces concentrate on the Eastern border of Ukraine while preparing a mass spring offensive.
The Ukrainian president said Thursday in an X position that, in addition to his previous statement, that more than 150 Chinese citizens are fighting for Russia in Ukraine, “it is clear that these are not isolated cases, but rather systematic Russian efforts … within the jurisdiction of China, to recruit citizens of that country.”
The Kremlin dismissed the accusations on Thursday, Reuters reported, while China in recent days has rejected any suggestion that supports its citizens who participate in foreign wars.
Before the announcement of help on Friday, Europe had already promised $ 91 billion in military assistance to kyiv, exceeding $ 64 billion of Washington in February, according to the Kiel Institute for the world economy.
American aid has been questioned since the change in administrations earlier this year, with President Donald Trump and his administration repeatedly criticizing Europe’s leaders for not doing enough to help kyiv fight a war at his door.
“We are already doing more, and we can go further,” said EU high representative for foreign matters and security policy, Kaja Kallas, in a publication on X on Friday.
The military support from Europe to Ukraine was at the Discussions Center in Brussels on Friday when the United Kingdom and Germany organized a meeting with 50 other countries, before which Zelenskyy said he planned to raise the shortage of Ukraine air defense systems.
In recent months, the United States and Ukraine have discussed the development of the critical deposits of the latter together a peso for military aid. Anthony Blinken, the former secretary of state under then President Joe Biden, told CNBC this week that Zelenskyy had initially been the one who proposed such an agreement.
The spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, replied on Friday, referring to the allied nations of Ukraine as “the Zelenskyy managers” on Friday, and saying that “they had bought it block, broth and barrel, used it, and now they are cleaning their dirty and bloody hands.”
The mineral wealth of Ukraine has formed a part of The interests of the Trump administration in the region, since it tries to negotiate the end of the war. Another has been an effort to restore relations with Moscow.
A constant flow of diplomatic activity has continued since the American envoys gathered separately in Saudi Arabia with Russian and Ukrainian counterparts and Putin sent one of its nearby allies, Kirill Dmitriev, Washington earlier this month by conversations. Dmitriev is the highest official in Kremlin to visit the United States since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Similarly, Witkoff arrived in St. Petersburg on Friday to meet with Dmitriev, who is also the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, in an effort to break the dead point in the high -fire conversations.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the meeting on Friday morning before telling the state media that Witkoff would meet once again with Putin after doing so before. He added that the meeting would be a good opportunity to convey Russia’s position to Trump.
