After visiting several battlefronts and paying tribute to the victims of the Russian occupation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will travel to Poland this Wednesday, where he will give a speech in the historic center of Warsaw. According to the Polish authorities, who announced the trip, it will be a way of expressing gratitude for the way Poles “help Ukraine, refugees at the border or welcome them to their homes”. The visit comes as the Kremlin is accusing Kiev – and opponent Alexei Navalny – of responsibility for the attack that killed blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in St Petersburg, in which the Russians detained the woman who allegedly handed him the explosive device.
Warsaw will be only the fifth foreign capital Zelensky has visited since the Russian invasion, after Washington, London, Paris and Brussels – despite having visited the country in secret precisely on his travels to these destinations. The Ukrainian president’s agenda includes a meeting with his Polish counterpart, Andrzej Duda, and another with the prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, where he should thank them for the Soviet-made MiG-29 fighter jets they already have delivered.
But the highlight of the visit should be the speech at Plac Zamkowy (Castle Square) in Warsaw. According to Duda’s chief of staff Marcin Przydacz, “everyone will be able to see the president of Ukraine”, with the installation of giant screens planned. “It will be a very special visit”, he said. On the eve of the first year of the Russian invasion, the Polish capital was also the scene of a speech by US President Joe Biden about the war in Ukraine.
This journey by Zelensky comes after weeks of visiting the fronts in eastern and southern Ukraine and traveling to key sites of the Russian occupation. He was in Bucha on Friday, celebrating a year since the city’s liberation and paying tribute to the victims of the massacre that took place there. This Monday, he was in Yagidne, in the Chernihiv region, where 367 people — almost the entire population of the town, including a six-week-old baby — were forced to live closed for 27 days in the basement of a school, measuring only 200 square meters. meters. .
“They survived standing and sitting. 11 people unfortunately died. And all these people somehow lived in darkness and waited for the return of Ukraine. I thank them for surviving and waiting for our soldiers and for helping the whole world could tell about the tragedy. that Ukraine suffered. Russian Federation brought to our country”, he claimed. German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck and Council of Europe Secretary General Marija Pejcinovicć Buric accompanied Zelensky on the visit to mark a year of release.
“It is important to see this and be in these cellars to understand whether it is better to help Ukraine or to think about ways to talk to Russia,” the Ukrainian president said. “After seeing all this, I hope the president of Russia spends the rest of his days in a basement with a bucket for a toilet”he added, telling how the survivors gave the names of the dead so they wouldn’t be forgotten and how the children wrote the verses of the Ukrainian national anthem.
dead blogger
Russia detained a 26-year-old woman on Monday for the explosion that killed Vladlen Tatarsky, a blogger who defended Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. and injured more than 30 people in a cafe in St. Petersburg. Darya Trepova had been imprisoned for ten days for taking part in an anti-war demonstration on the day of the invasion of Ukraine. In a video released by authorities, he admits that he was wearing the statuette that allegedly contained the explosives that killed Tatarsky. However, he doesn’t say if he knew these were there – and when asked who gave him the object, he says “Can I tell you later, please?”
That is what the Russian authorities claim “The terrorist attack was planned by the Ukrainian security services with the help of agents of the so-called Anti-Corruption Foundation,” referring to the organization of detainee Navalny. Kiev denies responsibility and points the finger at power struggles in Russia. Navalny’s foundation also rejects any connection to the attack, noting that the opponent has yet to be tried for extremism and that this is a way for the Kremlin to further harm him.
But the Russian presidentVladimir Putin, posthumously awarded Tatarsky – his real name was Maxim Fomin – with the Order of Bravery, for “courage and courage shown in professional duty”. The blogger wrote about what happened in Donbass, leading Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova to claim that Russian journalists are facing a “witch hunt” in the West and “death threats” from Kiev.
This despite the fact that it was Russia that a journalist of the Wall Street Journal, Evan Gershkovich, accused of espionage. The White House says it is pressing for his release and denounces that the US consular services have still not been able to gain access to him.
Source: DN
