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Zelenskyy in Argentina for Support 12/10 09:35
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is heading to Buenos Aires to
witness the swearing-in on Sunday of Argentina's new president, Javier Milei,
Zelenskyy's office said.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is heading to
Buenos Aires to witness the swearing-in on Sunday of Argentina's new president,
Javier Milei, Zelenskyy's office said.
It is the Ukrainian leader's first-ever trip to Latin America as Kyiv
continues to court support among developing nations for its 21-month-old fight
against Russia's invading forces.
A political outsider who has railed against what he calls entrenched
official corruption in Argentina and promised to uproot the political
establishment, Milei ran on a pro-Western foreign policy platform, repeatedly
expressing distrust of Moscow and Beijing.
Zelenskyy phoned Milei shortly after the Argentinian's electoral victory,
thanking him for his "clear support for Ukraine" which he described in social
media posts as "well-noticed and appreciated by Ukrainians."
In its readout of the call published shortly later, Milei's office said he
had offered to host a summit between Ukraine and Latin American states, a
potential boon to Kyiv's monthslong effort to strengthen its relationships with
countries of the global south.
Zelenskyy and other senior Ukrainian officials have repeatedly presented
Ukraine's war against Russia as resistance against colonial aggression, hoping
to win support from Asian, African and Latin American states that in the past
struggled to free themselves from foreign domination, sometimes turning to
Moscow for support against Western powers.
According to Zelenskyy's official website, he broke his journey to Argentina
to meet with the prime minister of the West African country of Cape Verde,
Ulisses Correia e Silva, thanking him for his support for Kyiv's diplomatic
initiatives and discussing efforts to boost Ukrainian grain exports to Africa.
It was not immediately clear where the meeting took place.
Zelenskyy expressed his appreciation for Cape Verde's backing of U.N.
resolutions supporting Ukraine's territorial integrity and calling for the
withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory before peace talks can
begin.
The African country previously supported U.N. documents condemning Russia's
annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
According to Zelenskyy's website, he and Correia e Silva also discussed
Kyiv's efforts to expand a corridor for grain exports in the Black Sea that has
seen over 7 million metric tons of Ukrainian produce shipped out since its
inception, months after Moscow pulled out of a U.N.-brokered deal to facilitate
shipments of Ukrainian and Russian food and fertilizer to countries in need, as
well as a proposal to establish transport and storage hubs for Ukrainian grain
in Africa.
In other developments:
-- Russian shelling over the past 24 hours killed two elderly women and
wounded two more civilians in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region, local Gov.
Oleh Syniehubov reported on Sunday morning. In a Telegram update, Syniehubov
said that both women died in the same attack in the province's east, parts of
which run close to the front line and have seen intense fighting in recent
weeks.
In the Kherson region in the south, Russian shelling on Saturday and
overnight killed one civilian and wounded four others, local Gov. Oleksandr
Prokudin said on Telegram on Sunday.
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