Zelenskyy Meets With Latvian President Levits And Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki In Kyiv

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday met with Latvian President Egils Levits and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in Kyiv and discussed with them a number of issues, including financial assistance to Ukraine and energy issues.

This is stated in the message of the Office of the President, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

Welcoming foreign visitors, Zelenskyy thanked Latvia and Poland for supporting Ukraine in the struggle for freedom and independence.

"Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of our land, these states, these leaders who have shown their world-class leadership qualities have been with us," he said.

According to Zelenskyy, these countries and their peoples are stable partners of Ukraine, which provide support in various spheres: political, defense, humanitarian, in particular, helping internally displaced persons.

"These states have done the most and continue to do, demonstrating historical support for Ukraine," the President stated.

The Head of State thanked the partners for helping to unlock macro-financial assistance, in particular the first part of it in the amount of EUR 5 billion, as well as for promoting Ukraine's position in the European Union.

"They have taken ambitious steps to help Ukraine in providing us with the status of a candidate for EU membership. We will continue to work at this level and will do everything to ensure that we, for our part, fulfill our obligations, and they, for their part, have done everything so that this year we open a working dialogue about the upcoming concrete accession of Ukraine to the European Union," Zelenskyy said.

The President also said that Ukraine today has received the support of Latvia and Poland regarding the sanctions policy concerning Russia.

"Today we discussed an important aspect regarding visa restrictions for tourists from the Russian Federation in "unfriendly," as they say, Europe. It seems to me that this is an absolutely fair decision. Today we talked about the fact that we must unite the circle of such countries, and it must expand so that Russia feels the price for this war," the Head of State said.

Important energy issues were raised during the meeting, he said.

"We are interested in ensuring that Ukraine can help Poland, and we are doing everything to ensure that we find an answer to future energy risks in the near future," Zelenskyy said.

For his part, Levits noted that Latvia and Poland are friends of Ukraine and will always remain on the side of the Ukrainian people, who are now fighting not only for their freedom, but also for the whole Europe and the whole free world.

"Our duty is to provide you with all the necessary help for Ukraine to win. This is the duty of all democratic countries," the President of the Republic of Latvia stressed.

Levits noted that Latvia helps with the rehabilitation of wounded Ukrainian soldiers, organized summer camps for Ukrainian children.

In addition, according to him, Latvia began a special program to rebuild a number of facilities in Chernihiv region, in particular educational institutions, so that children can return to study.

Levits stressed that Latvia, together with Poland, strongly contribute to the European integration of Ukraine, among other things, by accelerating negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU.

For his part, Morawiecki noted that Poland, together with the Baltic countries, is almost the most active in the European Union to communicate with the European Commission on financial support for Ukraine and the continuation of the policy of sanctions against the aggressor state.

"These sanctions will increase and every month will be more painful for the Russian economy," he assured.

The Polish Prime Minister noted the advance of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Kharkiv region and wished that this success was the first swallow of Ukraine's final victory over Russia in this unprovoked war.

He added that Europe, the United States and the whole free world should help Ukraine in its struggle.

"Poland will always organize this assistance," the Prime Minister said.

Morawiecki said that during the negotiations today the issue of creating a special hub was discussed, where military equipment and training of the Ukrainian military would be repaired.

In addition, it was about the participation of Polish companies in the reconstruction of Ukraine.

He expressed his conviction that thanks to the cohesion of partners and the heroism of the Ukrainian people, this victory will come, and the space of European values will be protected.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki on Friday arrived on an official visit to Kyiv.