Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government invited top European officials on May 9 to Kyiv as a show of diplomatic force against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual military parade in Moscow the same day.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha on Monday extended the invitation to his European Union peers during a gathering in Luxembourg, urging them to “show our unity and resolve in the face of the biggest aggression in Europe since the Second World War.”
The push to draw attention away from Moscow comes more than three years after Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and as United States President Donald Trump attempts to broker a ceasefire between the two countries.
Separately, Zelenskyy would like to host leaders on May 9 from the coalition of the willing to “determine security guarantees” for Ukraine once a possible ceasefire with Russia has been agreed, Sybiha added. The U.S. isn’t part of that coalition.
While he didn’t specify where that meeting would take place, discussions were underway regarding a potential visit to Ukraine in early May by heads of state, including soon-to-be German chancellor Friedrich Merz, said two EU diplomats who were granted anonymity to speak about the potential future event.
The Russian president has extended invitations to the leaders of Israel, China, Brazil, Slovakia and Serbia to join him in Moscow to celebrate Russia’s 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, according to Russian media. He has not invited the U.S. or most of the EU’s member countries.
Previously, former U.S. President George W. Bush and then French President Jacques Chirac attended the display of military pageantry on Moscow’s Red Square in 2005 but no Western leaders have attended in recent years.
Russia has so far ignored pressure to stop attacking Ukraine, killing 34 people and injuring more than 170 with a ballistic missile attack on central Sumy, Ukraine on Palm Sunday — an attack that drew widespread condemnation from leaders, including U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Trump, for his part, called the attack “terrible” but stopped short of criticizing Russia.
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