Ursula von der Leyen went to Kyiv on Wednesday and promised continued military and financial support for Ukraine as the country marked its annual Statehood Day under Russia’s fourth year of the conflict. The European Commission President’s visit landed in the middle of a war that has killed thousands, driven millions from their homes, and left Ukrainian cities in ruins. The people living through it keep paying. The institutions keep talking about support.
Who Pays for the Summit Politics
Statehood Day is a public holiday in Ukraine, a celebration of self-determination in a country whose sovereignty has been under attack since Russian forces occupied Crimea in 2014 and Moscow illegally annexed the peninsula. Eight years later came the all-out invasion of February 2022. Since then, the war has reduced cities to rubble and fueled fears that the confrontation could slide into open conflict between Russia and NATO, whose member nations have supported Kyiv. No peace settlement is in sight. That’s the reality beneath the diplomatic pageantry.
Ukrainian officials said Wednesday that at least eight civilians were killed and 11 others were injured in Russian aerial attacks. Russian forces dropped six powerful glide bombs mostly targeting infrastructure in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, killing three people and wounding seven, according to the head of the regional military administration, Oleh Hryhorov. Three people were killed and three others wounded in a Russian attack on Odesa, the head of the city’s military administration, Serhii Lysak, said. In Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region, Russian drone attacks killed two people and seriously wounded an 18-year-old, regional military administration head Viacheslav Chaus said. The hierarchy of war keeps its own accounting. Civilians at the bottom absorb the blast.
What the Powerful Call Support
Von der Leyen said her trip to the Ukrainian capital was her 11th in wartime. She said she would announce new steps toward integrating the European and Ukrainian defense industries and provide new help to prepare Ukrainian air defenses for next winter, when Russia usually tries to knock out the power. "It’s a special moment," Von der Leyen said on social media. "Ukraine has built a strong military momentum. The tide is turning."
Europe, she said through the machinery of official backing, is watchful of Russia’s broader intentions on the continent and has provided billions of euros to Ukraine as well as diplomatic support. The money and the diplomacy flow upward through governments and defense industries, while ordinary people keep living with the consequences of decisions made far above them.
Senior officials from southeastern European countries were also expected in Kyiv on Wednesday for a periodic gathering focused on Black Sea and regional security. Last year’s meeting in the southern Ukraine city of Odesa reaffirmed the countries’ support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has recently won important pledges of further support, including from the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations and the so-called Coalition of the Willing countries. The language is polished. The structure is not. It’s a summit of states backing a state at war.
The Regional Order on Display
Serbia’s Moscow-friendly president, Aleksandar Vucic, was taking part in the Southeast Europe Summit in Kyiv. Serbia relies almost fully on Russia for its energy supplies and has refused to join Western sanctions on Moscow that were imposed after its invasion, although it officially supports Ukraine’s territorial integrity. That’s the diplomatic balancing act: public statements for sovereignty, private dependence on power blocs, and no shortage of leaders eager to stand near the cameras while the war grinds on.
In Moscow, the Russian Defense Ministry said its air defenses overnight intercepted 93 Ukrainian drones over several Russian regions, as well as over Crimea and the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. The war machine on both sides keeps moving. The people underneath it keep paying in blood, displacement, and wrecked infrastructure.
Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal. Associated Press reporter Justin Spike in Budapest contributed to this story.