The leaders of France, Germany, Poland and the UK will travel to Kyiv on Saturday, amid renewed international calls for Russia to agree to a lasting ceasefire and engage in peace talks.
The visit is aimed to show western solidarity with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after Russia’s Vladimir Putin hosted the leaders of China and Brazil at Moscow’s Victory Day parade celebrating 80 years since the end of the second world war.
Germany’s new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, will join French President Emmanuel Macron and British and Polish prime ministers Sir Keir Starmer and Donald Tusk in the Ukrainian capital — the quartet’s first trip since Merz became chancellor earlier this month.