KYIV, Ukraine — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol made a shock go to to Ukraine on Saturday, providing help for the invaded nation in its conflict with Russia whereas demonstrating his personal nation’s cooperation with NATO.
Yoon’s workplace stated he traveled to Ukraine along with his spouse, Kim Keon Hee, following journeys to Lithuania for a NATO summit and to Poland. It’s his first go to since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Yoon toured Bucha and Irpin, two small cities close to Kyiv the place our bodies of civilians have been discovered within the streets and mass graves after Russian troops retreated from the capital area final yr. He laid flowers at a monument to the nation’s conflict lifeless, earlier than he sat down for a summit with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
South Korea, a key U.S. ally in Asia, joined worldwide sanctions in opposition to Russia and has supplied Ukraine with humanitarian and monetary help to Ukraine. But the Asian nation, a rising arms exporter, hasn’t supplied weapons to Ukraine according to its long-standing coverage of not supplying arms to international locations actively engaged in battle.
During a joint information convention with Zelenskyy later Saturday, Yoon introduced plans to develop help shipments to Ukraine however didn’t contact upon weapons provides.
Yoon started his assertion with a point out of the U.N. forces’ help of South Korea through the 1950-53 Korean War that helped repel a North Korean invasion.
PHOTOS: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol makes shock go to to Ukraine
“The current situation facing Ukraine reminds us of the past situation of the Republic of Korea,” Yoon stated.
Zelenskyy thanked Seoul for its “firm support of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” and the “significant political, security, economic and humanitarian aid” it has equipped because the begin of Russia’s invasion.
Yoon stated that South Korea will enhance the shipments of nonlethal navy objects akin to physique armor and helmets this yr. He stated that South Korea can even present humanitarian support price $150 million this yr, up from $100 million final yr. He stated that South Korea has additionally despatched the de-mining tools and different support objects that had been requested by Ukraine.
Yoon stated that he and Zelenskyy agreed on cooperating on post-war reconstruction efforts in Ukraine. Yoon stated South Korea can even launch a scholarship fund named after him and Zelenskyy to develop help for Ukrainian college students in South Korea.
South Korea isn’t a NATO member, however like Japan, Pakistan and a handful of different international locations, it’s thought of a worldwide accomplice of the navy alliance. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited Ukraine in March.
In his current written responses to questions from The Associated Press, Yoon stated that the safety of the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific areas is intently intertwined, saying: “In particular, the war in Ukraine has reminded us all that a security crisis in one particular region can have a global impact.”
Yoon took workplace final yr amid a mixture of robust overseas coverage challenges akin to North Korea’s advancing nuclear program and the intensifying rivalry between the U.S., South Korea’s fundamental safety ally, and China, its greatest buying and selling accomplice.
During a January go to to South Korea, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg referred to as for the nation to supply direct navy help to Ukraine, saying Kyiv was in pressing want of weapons to combat off the extended Russian invasion.
In May, when Yoon met Ukrainian first woman Olena Zelenska in Seoul, the president stated he would develop South Korea’s nonlethal support to Ukraine. Yoon’s workplace stated on the time that Zelenska made no request for South Korean weapons provides.
Later in May, Yoon and Zelenskyy met for the primary time on the sidelines of a Group of Seven industrialized nations summit in Hiroshima, Japan. Zelensky thanked South Korea for its humanitarian shipments of medicines, computer systems and mills and requested further provisions of non-lethal objects, Yoon’s workplace stated.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, South Korea has reached billions of {dollars} price of offers to supply tanks, howitzers, fighter jets and different weapons programs to NATO member Poland.
An American official stated in November that the United States had agreed to purchase 100,000 artillery rounds from South Korean producers to supply to Ukraine, though South Korean officers have maintained that the munitions have been meant to refill depleted U.S. shares.
“Yoon’s visit to Ukraine reflects his globally-minded foreign policy and shows South Korean solidarity with NATO partners in defending the rules-based international order,” Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, stated. “Seoul’s support of Ukraine includes not only humanitarian assistance, but also arms sales to backfill NATO countries providing military aid to Kyiv, and plans for post-conflict reconstruction of infrastructure.”
Yoon and his spouse’s go to got here two days after Russia launched one other barrage of Iranian-made drones on the Kyiv area. Ukrainian officers stated their air defenses intercepted the drones however that wreckage fell on 4 districts of the capital, wounding two individuals and destroying a number of properties.
Although Kyiv didn’t come beneath assault within the hours earlier than the South Korean president’s arrival, Ukrainian forces on Friday and in a single day downed 10 Russian drones throughout the nation, the Ukrainian air pressure reported Saturday.
In a Telegram submit, the air pressure added that Moscow fired six Iranian-made Shahed drones at Ukraine’s south and east through the evening, 4 of which have been shot down. It didn’t instantly give particulars of any casualties or injury.
In southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia province, the place Ukraine has been engaged in a counteroffensive to take again occupied territory, there have been 45 air and artillery assaults between Friday and Saturday, Gov. Yurii Malashka reported.
Russian forces shelled neighboring Kherson province 70 occasions over the identical interval, utilizing mortars, artillery, drones, tanks, aviation and a number of rocket launchers, Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin stated Saturday. No civilians have been wounded, he stated.
Russian shelling over the previous day killed one civilian in japanese Ukraine’s Donetsk province, Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko reported Saturday. Ukrainain forces have been urgent their counteroffensive within the space, inching their manner from Velyka Novosilka down towards the Russian-occupied metropolis of Mariupol.
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