Ukraine leader Zelensky visits Athens to attend meeting of Balkan leaders
Athens has resisted pressure to provide Kyiv with a Russian-made air defence missile system.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has flown to Greece for talks with the country’s leadership and to attend an informal meeting of Balkan leaders with top European Union officials.
Mr Zelensky met with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and also was scheduled to meet the country’s figurehead president, Katerina Sakellaropoulou.
In the evening, Mr Zelensky is to join in an informal dinner organised by Mr Mitsotakis for top officials from nine Balkan nations as well as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council head Charles Michel.
We need to bring our friends, the aspiring members of the EU much closer to us and much faster.
Glad to be in Athens to discuss the European perspective of our neighbors and partners in the East and the Western Balkans.
We will keep bringing down barriers between our regions. pic.twitter.com/OJkAQYDlef
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) August 21, 2023
The dinner is scheduled to discuss the Western Balkans region’s future in the EU, which many countries have already joined and the rest are jockeying to enter.
Greece has joined its Nato and EU partners in strongly backing Ukraine against the Russian invasion, and has provided material military assistance in the form of armoured personnel carriers and ammunition.
But Athens has resisted pressure to provide Kyiv with a Russian-made air defence missile system stationed on the southern island of Crete.
Earlier on Monday, Mr Zelensky was in Denmark, where he thanked lawmakers for helping his country resist Russia’s invasion.
On Sunday, Denmark and the Netherlands announced they would provide Kyiv with F-16 warplanes that could be delivered around the end of the year.