Zbigniew Rau is making the trip in his role as Chairman-in-Office of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Poland's PAP news agency reported.
Poland’s top diplomat is set to visit Kyiv and Kharkiv and meet with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba as well as the OSCE’s special representative in the country, Mikko Kinnunen.
Rau is expected to hold talks with Zelensky over ways to de-escalate and resolve the crisis surrounding Ukraine.
The Polish foreign minister will meet for talks with his Ukrainian counterpart on Thursday and Friday, and the two are also due to lay flowers at the Wall of Remembrance for the Fallen Heroes of the Russian-Ukrainian War.
According to Polish foreign ministry spokesman Łukasz Jasina, “the talks will focus on the developments in eastern Ukraine, including efforts to de-escalate and resolve the current crisis, and on further cooperation between the OSCE and Ukraine.”
Rau also plans to "discuss the issue of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and express support for Ukrainian sovereignty within the bounds of international law, which is a highly important issue,” Jasina told reporters.
He noted that the OSCE has since 2014 maintained a special mission in Ukraine, which monitors the situation in the separatist-controlled areas around the cities of Lugansk and Donetsk.
Rau is scheduled to visit “the area under direct threat” on Friday, Jasina said.
Poland’s top diplomat will also meet with representatives of Ukraine’s civil society, hold two news briefings and make a private visit to the Cemetery of the Victims of Totalitarianism in Kharkiv, where his ancestors are buried, Jasina announced.
Earlier this week, Rau "inaugurated Poland’s Renewed European Security Dialogue initiative" during a conference in Vienna in his role as Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE, the Polish foreign ministry said in a statement.
It added that the launch of the initiative "along with U.S.-Russia bilateral talks and dialogue at the NATO-Russia Council, marks an important step intended to defuse the currently tense security situation and work out ways to prevent similar ones in the future."
Tensions around Ukraine
In recent days, planes carrying US troops and army equipment have landed in Poland as part of efforts to bolster NATO's eastern flank and reinforce allies in Eastern Europe amid a Russian military buildup near Ukraine.
Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops around Ukraine in recent weeks, according to media reports, raising fears in the West that Moscow may be preparing for a new invasion of the country.
Moscow has denied plans for an assault but says it could take unspecified military action if its security demands are not met, the Reuters news agency has reported.
Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and then fomented a separatist conflict in that country's eastern Donbas region, leading to a wave of EU and US sanctions against Moscow and Russian officials.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, gov.pl