Time.news – A surprise trip for Volodymyr Zelensky which will touch various European stages. First London, then Paris and tomorrow Brussels. The search for arms, aid and solidarity with the Ukrainian cause, while the calendar is about to mark the first anniversary of the Russian invasion and the war still has no winner. It is that of Rishi Sunak the first hand that Zelensky shakes, before speaking to Westminster Hall.
The Ukrainian president asks the British premier fighter planes, after Ukrainian pilots are trained in England. And the speech returns to the meeting with King Charles III. “In Britain the king is an air force pilot and in Ukraine today, every air force pilot is a king,” said Zelensky, winning the applause of British MPs. Zelensky specified that “modern planes” are needed and that he will do everything to convince the world to supply them to his country. It is the purpose of his journey.
After London, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will travel in Paris, where he is expected this evening by the president Emmanuel Macron, who will be joined by the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz. It’s not official yet, but Zelensky could attend the summit tomorrow European Council and in the extraordinary plenary that the European Parliament has called for tomorrow morning from 10 to 11.
In the meantime, the local newspapers are starting to report on the security measures set up by the police. “Snipers, helicopters, bodyguards, special teams: Brussels will be under maximum security for the visit of the Ukrainian president Zelensky”, writes the newspaper La Capitale. On March 24, Brussels had hosted US President Joe Biden by putting in place an imposing security machine, with time slots to prohibit access to the areas visited by the head of the White House.
“When US President Joe Biden comes to Brussels his visit is known and in a very short time a large part of the program is made public,” a Belgian police source told 7sur7 newspaper. Since the utmost secrecy is in force with the Ukrainian president, “we must compare Zelensky’s visit to Brussels to a visit by Joe Biden to Afghanistan or Iraq,” the source added. The Ukrainian leader, still reports 7sur7, will benefit from “strict protection” by the federal police, while the city’s police forces will deal with the broader framework of the European summit, such as traffic management. Normally it is up to the Threat Analysis Coordination Body (OCAM) to monitor the dangerousness of the trip and assign a risk level between 1 and 3.
For example, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, a recent guest of the European Parliament, received the highest score. But the Belgian press has no doubts about the Ukrainian leader: he is obviously out of category. “His arrival was made public” in recent days, “but this decision was taken some time ago”, added police sources.