Reuters. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday (May 9) for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy after a new wave of Russian air strikes on the capital.
The trip falls on the European Union's Europe Day, which Ukraine adopted as its own on Monday, underlining its ambition to join Western institutions after applying to join the EU last year following Russia military activities.
Von der Leyen paid respects to Ukrainian soldiers killed since 2014 and then visited outdoor exhibition of captured Russian hardware placed on St. Michael’s square.
"Good to be back in Kyiv. Where the values we hold dear are defended everyday," she said on Twitter alongside a photograph of her arriving by train.
She began her highly symbolic trip shortly before Russian President Vladimir Putin marked the Soviet victory in World War Two with an annual military parade and speech on Moscow's Red Square.
The European Commission, the EU executive, took the unusual step of publicly announcing von der Leyen's trip the day before she travelled. Visiting dignitaries usually keep wartime trips to Ukraine secret for security reasons.
Russia has intensified its long-range attacks on targets in Ukraine as Kyiv's forces prepare to launch a counter-offensive to try to recapture Russian-occupied territory occupied in the south and east.
Russia launched at least 25 missiles overnight, with a large part of them aimed at the capital Kyiv, but nearly all of them were shot down, Ukrainian officials said.
