Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, left, shakes hands with Polish President Andrzej Duda, at the Presidential Palace, in Warsaw, on April 5.ALEKSANDRA SZMIGIEL/Reuters
President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Poland for its “historic” help in rallying Western support for Ukraine during a visit to Warsaw and said Ukrainian troops were still fighting for Bakhmut in the east but could withdraw if they risked being cut off.
Poland has provided vital weaponry to Kyiv since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year and taken in millions of Ukrainian refugees. During Mr. Zelensky’s visit, Warsaw announced it would send 10 more MiG fighter jets to Kyiv on top of four provided earlier.
Polish President Andrzej Duda said Warsaw was also working to secure additional security guarantees for Ukraine at a NATO summit to be held in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius in July.
“ … That will strengthen the military potential of Ukraine,” Mr. Duda said at a joint news conference with Mr. Zelensky.
Mr. Zelensky said Ukrainian troops faced a really difficult situation in Bakhmut and Kyiv would take “corresponding” decisions to protect them if they risk being encircled by Russian invasion forces.
He said Kyiv’s forces in Bakhmut sometimes advanced a little only to be knocked back, but that they remained inside the city.
“We are in Bakhmut and the enemy does not control it,” Mr. Zelensky said.
Bakhmut, in Ukraine’s mainly Russian-occupied Donetsk province, has proven one of the bloodiest and longest battles of Russia’s invasion, now in its 14th month. Kyiv’s forces have held out against a Russian onslaught with heavy losses on both sides and the city, a mining and transport hub, reduced to ruin after months of street fighting and bombardment.
“For me, the most important is not to lose our soldiers and of course if there is a moment of even hotter events and the danger we could lose our personnel because of encirclement – of course the corresponding correct decisions will be taken by generals there,” Mr. Zelensky said.
He appeared to be referring to the idea of withdrawing.
However, Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said later in the day that the situation at the front was “completely under control” despite repeated Russian attempts to take Bakhmut and other cities in the east.
She wrote on Telegram that Ukrainian soldiers were repelling dozens of attacks a day around Bakhmut, Lyman, Avdiivka and Marinka.
Reuters could not verify the battlefield reports.
Ukrainian military commanders have stressed the importance of holding Bakhmut and other cities and inflicting losses prior to an anticipated counteroffensive in the east by Kyiv in the coming weeks or months.
Mercenaries from the Wagner group – who have spearheaded the assault on Bakhmut – said at the weekend they had captured the city centre, a claim dismissed by Kyiv.
The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War said the Wagner fighters had made advances in Bakhmut and were likely to continue trying to consolidate control of the city centre and push westward through dense urban neighbourhoods.
French President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, was visiting China after he and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed they would try to engage Beijing to hasten the end of the Russian assault on Ukraine.
China has called for a comprehensive ceasefire and described its position on the conflict as “impartial,” even though the Chinese and Russian presidents announced a “no limits” partnership shortly before the invasion.
Both Mr. Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, due in Beijing shortly after him, have said they want to persuade China to use its influence over Russia to bring peace in Ukraine, or to at least deter Beijing from directly supporting Moscow in the conflict.
The U.S. and NATO have said China was considering sending arms to Russia, which Beijing has denied.
Any Chinese supply of lethal aid to Russia for the war would be a “historic mistake with profound implications,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference in Brussels on Wednesday.
Poland has played a big role in persuading Western allies to supply battle tanks and other heavy weapons to Ukraine, which helped Kyiv stem and sometimes reverse Russian advances so far.
“You have stood shoulder to shoulder with us, and we are grateful for it,” Mr. Zelensky said after Mr. Duda presented him with Poland’s highest award, the Order of the White Eagle. “I believe that these are historic relations, a historic result, and historic strength between our countries.”
On Tuesday, the United States pledged US$2.6-billion more in military assistance for Mr. Zelensky’s government, including three air surveillance radars, anti-tank rockets and fuel trucks, taking pledged U.S. military aid to more than US$35-billion.
Moscow’s embassy in Washington accused the United States of seeking to drag out the conflict for as long as possible, Russian news agency TASS said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told state TV that Moscow needed to maintain relations with Washington even though American supplies of weapons to Ukraine meant “we are really in a hot phase of the war.”
In addition to MiG-29s, Kyiv has also pressed NATO for F-16 jet fighters to boost its ability to hit Russian missile units with U.S.-made rockets but Mr. Duda’s foreign policy adviser, Marcin Przydacz, said Poland would not decide any time soon on whether to send any. “F-16s are protecting Poland’s skies,” he said.
Mr. Zelensky was optimistic on the matter, predicting in a speech later in a Warsaw square that Poland would help form a coalition of Western powers to supply warplanes to Ukraine, as it did with modern battle tanks.