Baltic state leaders assert 'fight for Europe’s future' happening in Ukraine

Presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia who visited Ukraine in a show of solidarity on Wednesday, April 13 asserted that the “fight for Europe’s future is happening here.” The leaders of four Baltic states pledged their support to embattled Ukraine as they witnessed damaged civilian buildings and deaths that they labelled as “war crimes” during their surprise travel to Kyiv. The presidents had travelled to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv via a train and met with their Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

"Heading to Kyiv with a strong message of political support and military assistance," Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda tweeted ahead of the visit. 

Baltic leaders visit shattered town of Borodyanka

Four Baltic state heads visited the shattered town of Borodyanka in the northwest of Kyiv from where the Russian troops retreated to focus on the eastern Donbass region. Hundreds of civilians are reportedly still missing in the town for more than a week. The streets were full of scattered burnt-out cars, infrastructure rubble, flattened military tanks, and graves. After his visit, the Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda demanded tougher sanctions against Russia’s oil and gas in response to the invasion.

The visit came as in Mariupol more than 1,000 Ukrainian troops who ran out of ammunition surrendered to the Russian military forces after weeks of intense fighting to safeguard the city. Baltic leaders’ visit involved the talks on more military support, the head of the Polish president Andrzej Duda's office, Pawel Szrot, told the Polish broadcaster Polsat News. 

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who had also planned to visit Ukraine, was denied entry by President Zelenskyy for his conflicting views on the ongoing conflict. German broadcaster Bild reported that Zelenskeyy rejected Steinmeier's visit due to his close ties with Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin and his continuing support for Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project. "The president would have liked to go to Ukraine and would have visited the president," German chancellor Olaf Scholz told RBB public radio.

Scholz also said that he was “in more regular contact with Zelenskeyy” to have paid a visit himself to the war torn nation. Polish President Andrzej Duda said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is "not war," but “terrorism."  “It's not war. It's terrorism when soldiers are sent to murder civilians. It is a face of war that we are not able [to] and cannot accept,” he wrote on Twitter.