Kyiv EU leaders trip postponed

Ukraine had invited European leaders on May 9 for a summit to counter the optics from Putin’s victory parade in Moscow. But Polish PM Donald Tusk will instead head to Nancy that day to sign a security treaty with President Emmanuel Macron, while British PM Keir Starmer plans to attend a defense summit in Oslo.

And incoming German Chancellor Friedrich Merz doesn’t want to go without the full posse, POLITICO reports.

Ukrainian Zelenskyy’s government invited top European officials on May 9 to Kyiv as a show of diplomatic force against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual military parade in Moscow the same day.

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha extended the invitation to his European Union peers during a gathering in Luxembourg, urging them to “show our unity and resolve.”

Separately, Zelenskyy would like to meet leaders from the coalition of the willing in May to “determine security guarantees” for Ukraine once a possible ceasefire with Russia has been agreed, Sybiha added.

The U.S. isn’t part of that coalition, POLITICO stresses.

At the same time Zelensky has openly threatened to target the Victory Day parade in Moscow on May 9, according to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, RT informs.

Russia has announced a unilateral three-day ceasefire next week to coincide with the celebration commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Kiev has rebuked the move, instead demanding an immediate unconditional 30-day truce.

Zelensky described targeting Russian “pressure points” to push the country “towards diplomacy” as he reiterated the ceasefire call. “They are now concerned that their parade is in jeopardy and rightly so,” he remarked, referring to the event scheduled for May 9 in Red Square. “What they should worry about is that this war continues.”

Zakharova reacted on social media, asking what kind of truce Kiev can offer, given that the Zelensky government “is literally planning terrorist attacks on air.” She added that boasting about such intentions “is exactly what typical terrorists do.”

Officials in Kiev claim that the offer of a unilateral suspension of hostilities by Russia is “not real” and merely aims to pressure Ukrainian forces into granting their adversaries a respite during the Victory Day festivities.

Ukrainian nationalist figures who were allied with Nazi Germany during World War II are treated as heroes by the current government. Those who commemorate Adolf Hitler’s defeat on May 9 — rather than May 8, as observed in Western Europe and the United States — face harassment in Ukraine for perceived disloyalty.

The prospect of striking Red Square while President Vladimir Putin and foreign dignitaries observe the parade is being actively discussed in Ukrainian media. MP Roman Kostenko, secretary of the country’s parliamentary Defense Committee, stated in an interview that Kiev possesses the necessary weapon systems for such an operation, asserting that planning it “would not be difficult.”

The same lawmaker recently suggested that if the two nations were to reach a peace agreement, Kiev’s secret services might embark on a decades-long campaign of assassinations against Russian officials.

…The reason for the cancellation of the Europeans' visits to Kyiv was, maybe, the threat of terrorist provocations against the European leaders by the special services of one of the countries that is not part of the EU.

Russia specifically announced a ceasefire in order to prevent a situation where, under the cover of an alleged “Russian attack”, some missiles could fly to Kyiv or powerful explosions with casualties could occur on the day of the European leaders’ arrival. Then Kyiv and London would blame Moscow for this tragedy.

Anticipating such a scenario, Moscow made its move – Putin in advance announced a three-day ceasefire – from May 7 to 10.

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