The airspace may have been closed for twenty-four hours to commercial flights, for security reasons, the airport of Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, has probably never welcomed so many planes, government, from all over the continent. The small state bordering Ukraine hosted, Thursday 1er June, the second summit of the European Political Community, ie forty-five Heads of State and Government from the continent, including a guest who was hardly surprised as his attendance seemed obvious. Volodymyr Zelensky arrived as a neighbor, via Odessa, at the meeting place, an opulent hotel estate in the village of Bulboaca, 20 kilometers from the border.
As usual, the arrival of the Ukrainian president remained secret until the last moment. But in this country so close to his own, it is difficult for him not to join in person the community proposed by Emmanuel Macron a year ago, in order to encourage greater Europe to unite, in the face of the invasion decided by Russia. , with the support of Belarus – both kept out of this assembly. The arrival of the Ukrainian leader quickly eclipsed the absence of the barely re-elected Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. From the outset, Volodymyr Zelensky stole the show from the host of the summit, Maia Sandu, at the head of a Moldova threatened for fifteen months by war on its borders, and plagued by the secession of a “pro-Russian” region. », Transnistria, where Moscow maintains a military base.
The hero of the Ukrainian resistance took the opportunity to reiterate his calls to receive, as soon as possible, F-16 fighter jets and more American Patriot anti-missile batteries. The same morning, in kyiv, a new Russian attack killed three people, including a child. “All European countries which have a border with Russia and which do not want Russia to take part of their territory from them must be full members of NATO and the EU”launched the Ukrainian leader, a few weeks before a crucial summit of the Atlantic Alliance, in Vilnius, on July 11 and 12.
Strong signal to Central European states
The Ukrainian head of state is campaigning in favor of the prospect of his country joining the Atlantic Alliance, beyond the “open door” policy displayed by his allies. But he wondered aloud, a little later, about the nature of the security guarantees that his Western allies, including the United States, still very cautious on the subject, promise him, for lack of consensus on the accession of his country in NATO, in the midst of war.
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