The bilateral meeting between Poland's President Andrzej Duda and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky began at the presidential palace in Warsaw shortly after 11 a.m. local time, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Marcin Przydacz, a top foreign-policy aide to the Polish president, said ahead of the meeting that the two heads of state would discuss “the full range of Polish-Ukrainian relations," including security policy, “further political dialogue” and "certain historical matters that for years have been thorny issues in bilateral relations.”
Duda and Zelensky were set to hold private talks, followed by a meeting of a wider group of officials from both countries, broadcaster TVP Info reported.
The two presidents were due to hold a joint news conference in the early afternoon to brief reporters on the results of their talks, according to Przydacz.
Later on Wednesday, Zelensky was expected to attend a bilateral business forum in Warsaw and meet with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki to discuss Poland's role in the postwar reconstruction of Ukraine and Kyiv's planned purchases of Polish military equipment, including Rosomak armoured vehicles.
Other topics for Morawiecki and Zelensky included "challenges such as the transport of Ukrainian grain,” according to Polish government spokesman Piotr Müller.
Müller told reporters ahead of the talks that Zelensky’s visit to Warsaw would "underline Poland’s role in helping Ukraine over the past year” and set the ground for bilateral economic and military cooperation in the months ahead.
While in Warsaw on Wednesday, Zelensky was also expected to meet with volunteers helping Ukraine and make an address to the Polish people in the courtyard of Warsaw’s historic Royal Castle.
Zelensky’s trip to Warsaw on Wednesday marked his first official visit since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of his country in February last year, the PAP news agency reported.
Polish President Andrzej Duda (second from right), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (second from left), Polish First Lady Agata Konhauser-Duda (right), and Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska (left) in Warsaw on Wednesday. Photo: PAP/Marcin Obara
The Polish and Ukrainian presidents previously held two working meetings in the southeastern Polish city of Rzeszów, in December 2022 and February 2023, according to officials.
Meanwhile, Poland’s Duda has made four trips to Ukraine since Russia invaded, the PAP news agency reported.
In April 2022, Duda and his Baltic counterparts visited Bucha and other towns near Kyiv that had been ravaged by the Russian army; in May 2022, the Polish president addressed the Ukrainian parliament in Kyiv; in August 2022, he attended the Crimean Platform summit in the Ukrainian capital; and in January 2023 he made a trip to the western Ukrainian city of Lviv for a summit of the Lublin Triangle of Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania, according to PAP.
Wednesday is day 406 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
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Source: IAR, PAP