The President of the Portuguese Republic arrived in the Ukrainian capital at 7:30 a.m. local time (5:30 a.m. Lisbon) this Wednesday for a two-day visit, which coincides with the celebration of the country’s 32nd anniversary of independence.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is in Kiev on Thursday to continue the Portuguese presence and solidarity with Ukraine, and to participate in the Independence Day celebrations on Thursday, the day he will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“The goal is multiple. First, it is to continue the Portuguese presence. The Prime Minister, the President of the Assembly of the Republic, several times the Minister of Foreign Affairs, now that the President of the Republic has come. show their solidarity in all domains,” continued Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa shortly after disembarking at the Kiev-Pasazhyrskyi railway station.
The head of state added that “everything that is fundamental – and everything that is fundamental at the moment – in the life of Ukraine is fundamental in the life of Portugal”.
Flanked by Foreign Minister João Gomes Cravinho, the president of the republic announced that he will take part in the commemorations of the 32nd anniversary of Ukraine’s independence on Thursday, considering that “this year is even more special” due to the involvement of representatives of other countries in the celebrations and why the Ukrainian counter-offensive, an “assertion of its sovereignty”, is underway.
The Portuguese Head of State got off at the Kiev-Pasazhyrskyi Railway Station in Kiev, accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, João Gomes Cravinho, by the Head of the Civil House of the Presidency, Fernando Frutuoso de Melo, by the Ambassadors Maria Amélia Paiva and Jorge Silva Lopes, former PS leader João Soares, historian José Pacheco Pereira and businessman Luís Delgado.
The head of state is the third senior person from the Portuguese state to travel to Ukraine, following the visit of the Prime Minister, António Costa, on May 21, 2022, and the President of the Assembly of the Republic, Augusto Santos Silva. , at the beginning about three and a half months ago.
On Tuesday, the President of the Republic asked parliament for permission to travel to Ukraine this week.
The visit of the President of the Republic came after an invitation from his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, during António Costa’s visit to Kiev.
“I am the bearer of an invitation issued by President Zelensky to His Excellency the President of the Republic to visit Ukraine at a suitable date. And that is the invitation that I will pass on,” the Portuguese Prime Minister announced at the time after a meeting with the President of Ukraine.
On the day the invitation was announced, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said he would be “delighted” to make the trip to the Ukrainian capital to show that there is “convergence in support” for the country that has been around for more than spent a year and a half trying to repel an invasion from Russia.
On February 22 this year, the Portuguese head of state announced his intention to personally decorate Zelensky, in Kiev, with the Grand Collar of the Order of Liberty: “I intend to [a condecoração] personally when you go to Ukraine. That is what I have done with heads of state and others decorated with that order and others.”
The President of the Republic will find a transfigured city compared to the one that António Costa traversed just two months after the start of the Russian invasion.
The streets full of people, restaurants and terraces full, and a seeming sense of normalcy in daily life replaced the almost deserted city and the latent fear in every inhabitant of a bombing at any time in the first months.
For security reasons, the presidency of the republic has not revealed details about a possible meeting between Marcelo and the Ukrainian counterpart and what will be part of the itinerary in the country’s capital.
The visit of the President of the Republic coincides with the commemoration of the 32nd anniversary of Ukraine’s independence. It is expected that representatives of other countries that support the Ukrainians from day one against the “special military operation”, as it is called by the Kremlin, will participate.
Source: DN
