Zelenskyy to Visit Warsaw to Meet with Poles, Ukrainians

FILE - In this image from video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 6, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP, File)
FILE - In this image from video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 6, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP, File)
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Zelenskyy to Visit Warsaw to Meet with Poles, Ukrainians

FILE - In this image from video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 6, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP, File)
FILE - In this image from video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 6, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP, File)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will pay a visit to Warsaw this week that will include talks with political leaders and a meeting with regular Ukrainians and Poles, Polish officials announced on Monday.

Zelenskyy will be accompanied by his wife, Olena Zelenska, for the visit, scheduled for Wednesday. It will begin with an official meeting at the Royal Castle between Zelenskyy and his host, Polish President Andrzej Duda, The Associated Press said.

Their talks will include security issues, regional politics, economic cooperation, historical matters lingering between the two neighbors as well as the transit of Ukraine's grain and other farm produce through Poland, according to Marcin Przydacz, the head of Duda’s international office.

The talks will be followed by a meeting with the public, according to Duda's office.

Przydacz told radio broadcaster RMF FM that Zelenskyy will meet with Ukrainians and Poles at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, and that Zelenskyy says he wants to thank Poles for helping Ukrainians.

“We are preparing a number of elements that will give this visit a special character," Przydacz said.

Zelenskyy is also to hold talks with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki regarding regional security, the situation at the front, and bilateral cooperation including the situation at border crossings and with Ukrainian grain, according to Morawiecki aide Michal Dworczyk.

Poland's farmers have been protesting falling prices for their grain and produce and lack of storage ahead of this year's harvest, blaming the situation on a massive inflow of produce from Ukraine that was intended for transit to third country markets but is lingering in Poland.

The historical issues chiefly regard tense relations that led to bloodshed between Poles and Ukrainians who lived in what was Poland before World War II and is now western Ukraine.

Deputy Foreign Minister Arkadiusz Mularczyk said that there is “more now that unites us, compared to the past, because we see eye to eye on things like geopolitics, security and Russia's aggression.”

It will be Zelenskyy’s first official visit to Poland since Russia’s aggression on Ukraine 13 months ago. He has held a number of secret working meetings in the country, however, while traveling to other countries.

Poland, a NATO and European Union nation on Ukraine's western border, was the first stop for many of the refugees who fled war at home. Many chose to remain, with more than 1.5 million registering with the government.



Cyprus Says US Decree on Security Affirms Island's Stabilizing Role in Region

Nicosia, Cyprus | Photo: Getty Images
Nicosia, Cyprus | Photo: Getty Images
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Cyprus Says US Decree on Security Affirms Island's Stabilizing Role in Region

Nicosia, Cyprus | Photo: Getty Images
Nicosia, Cyprus | Photo: Getty Images

Cyprus on Thursday hailed a US memorandum allowing military sales, including arms, to the island as a milestone affirming recognition of the island as a pillar of stability in the east Mediterranean region which has been fraught with conflict.
US President Joe Biden boosted security ties with Cyprus on Wednesday by issuing a memorandum that makes the island eligible to receive American defense articles, military sales and training.
Cyprus has over the years played a key role in evacuating people out of conflict zones and established a maritime corridor for aid to war-ravaged Gaza last year.
"This (memorandum) is a clear recognition of the Republic of Cyprus as a pillar of stability and security in the Eastern Mediterranean, with the potential to further contribute to peace and the management of humanitarian challenges," the Cypriot presidency said in a statement.
Cyprus was close to Russia for decades, but there has been a marked shift in allegiances in recent years, Reuters said.
For many in Cyprus, Russia's invasion of Ukraine has drawn parallels to Türkiye’s invasion of Cyprus in 1974, and Cyprus, an EU member state, has followed its peers in adopting sanctions on Moscow. It is now getting FBI expertise in countering illicit finance.
Access to the US programs would enable greater interoperability to respond to regional humanitarian crises, counter malign influence, and combat terrorism and transnational organized crime, the US embassy in Nicosia said.
Deepening US-Cyprus relations are closely followed by Türkiye, which in September criticized the signing of a roadmap to boost defense co-operation between the United States and Cyprus.
Cyprus was split in a Turkish invasion following a brief Greek-inspired coup in 1974, following years of sporadic violence between Greek and Turkish Cypriots which triggered the collapse of a power-sharing administration in 1963.