PARIS — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will make a shock go to to Paris for talks Sunday evening with French President Emmanuel Macron, extending a multi-stop European tour that has elicited recent pledges of navy assist as his nation gears up for a counteroffensive towards Russian occupation forces.

Macron’s workplace introduced the Paris leg of Zelenskyy’s journey, and France dispatched a aircraft to select up Zelenskyy in Germany, the place he met Chancellor Olaf Scholz earlier Sunday.

Macron’s workplace stated the 2 leaders will maintain talks over dinner and that Macron will “reaffirm France and Europe’s unwavering support to reestablish Ukraine in its legitimate rights and to defend its fundamental interests.”

They’ll additionally talk about Ukraine’s navy and humanitarian wants and “the more long term perspectives for a return to peace in Europe,” Macron’s workplace stated.

France has equipped Ukraine with an array of weaponry, embrace air-defense programs, mild tanks, howitzers and different arms and gas.

Before flying to Paris, Zelenskyy mentioned his nation’s deliberate counteroffensive with Scholz in Berlin. Zelenskyy stated it is going to intention to liberate Russian-occupied areas inside Ukraine’s internationally acknowledged borders, and to not assault Russian territory.

PHOTOS: Ukraine's Zelenskyy makes shock go to to Paris for talks with French President Macron

The Washington Post cited beforehand undisclosed paperwork from a trove of U.S. intelligence leaks suggesting that Zelenskyy has thought of making an attempt to seize areas in Russia correct for attainable use as bargaining chips in peace negotiations to finish the conflict launched by Moscow in February 2022. This would put him at odds with Western governments which have insisted that weapons they supply should not be used to assault targets in Russia.

Asked in regards to the report, Zelenskyy stated: “We don’t attack Russian territory, we liberate our own legitimate territory.”

“We have neither the time nor the strength (to attack Russia),” he stated, in keeping with an official interpreter. “And we also don’t have weapons to spare, with which we could do this.”

“We are preparing a counterattack for the illegally occupied areas based on our constitutionally defined legitimate borders, which are recognized internationally,” Zelenskyy stated.

Among the areas nonetheless occupied by Russia are the Crimean peninsula and components of japanese Ukraine with primarily Russian-speaking populations.

The Ukrainian president is visiting allies searching for additional arms to assist his nation fend off the Russian invasion, and funds to rebuild what’s been destroyed by greater than a 12 months of devastating battle.

A Luftwaffe jet flew Zelenskyy to the German capital from Rome, the place he had met Saturday with Pope Francis and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni.

It was his first go to to Berlin for the reason that begin of the conflict and got here a day after the German authorities introduced a brand new package deal of navy support for Ukraine price greater than $3 billion, together with tanks, anti-aircraft programs and ammunition.

Zelenskyy thanked Scholz for Germany’s political, monetary and navy assist, saying the nation is now second solely behind the United States in offering support to Ukraine - and joked that he's working to make it the most important donor.

“German air defense systems, artillery, tanks and infantry fighting vehicles are saving Ukrainian lives and bringing us closer to victory. Germany is a reliable ally! Together we are bringing peace closer!” he wrote on Twitter after the assembly.

Scholz stated Berlin has to this point given Kyiv some 17 billion euros in bilateral support and that it will probably count on extra in future.

“We will support you for as long as necessary,” he stated, including that it's as much as Russia to finish the conflict by withdrawing its troops.

After initially hesitating to supply Ukraine with deadly weapons, Germany has turn into one of many greatest suppliers of arms to Ukraine, together with Leopard 1 and a couple of battle tanks, and the delicate IRIS-T SLM air-defense system. Modern Western {hardware} is taken into account essential if Ukraine is to achieve its deliberate counteroffensive towards Russian troops.

Zelenskyy stated one motive for his newest go to to allied capitals was to forge a “fighter jet coalition” that would supply Ukraine with the fight planes it must counter Russia’s air dominance.

Germany has stated up to now that it doesn’t have the F-16 jets Ukraine wants and Scholz responded to questions on attainable aircraft deliveries by referring to the anti-aircraft system it has supplied to Kyiv.

“That’s what we as Germany are now concentrating on,” he stated.

In Ukraine, officers on Sunday denied that the nation had something to do with the downing of two Russian helicopters near the border the day earlier than.

In a joint assertion after their assembly, Scholz and Zelenskyy stated they assist efforts to convey these accountable for atrocities in Ukraine to justice and famous the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

They additionally pledged to make sure sanctions towards Russia aren’t circumvented and to discover prospects for utilizing frozen Russian belongings to pay for harm brought about in Ukraine.

Germany stated it helps Kyiv’s efforts to hitch the European Union and backed a 2008 vow by NATO members to pave the way in which for Ukraine to finally be a part of the navy alliance.

Zelenskyy first met with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany’s head of state, who was snubbed by Kyiv final 12 months, apparently over his earlier shut ties to Russia, inflicting a chill in diplomatic relations between Ukraine and Germany. Since then, each Steinmeier and Chancellor Olaf Scholz have visited Ukraine.

After assembly Scholz and different senior officers on the chancellery, the 2 leaders flew to the western metropolis of Aachen for Zelenskyy to obtain the distinguished International Charlemagne Prize, awarded to him and the folks of Ukraine.

In her congratulatory speech, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in contrast the conflict in Ukraine to the autumn of the Iron Curtain greater than 30 years in the past.

“Every generation has its moment when it has to stand up to defend democracy and what it believes in,” she stated. “For us, that moment has come.”

Zelenskyy accused Moscow of making an attempt to show again the clock of European historical past in its assault on Ukraine.

“Modern Russia waged war not just on us, as a free and sovereign state, not just against united Europe as a global symbol of peace and prosperity,” he stated in his acceptance speech. “This is Russia’s war for the past.”

In different developments:

Zelenskyy’s chief aide, Andriy Yermak, stated Sunday that 5 civilians died in Ukraine’s southern Kherson area when an unexploded Russian shell blew up.

Overnight, Russia launched a “massive” assault on Ukraine with Iranian-made Shahed explosive drones, which left greater than 30 folks wounded, in keeping with the Ukrainian navy.

Eighteen of the 23 drones had been shot down, however those who acquired by means of, and wreckage from these intercepted, broken 50 residence buildings, non-public houses and different buildings, the navy stated with out offering additional particulars.

Russia additionally hit the western metropolis of Ternopil and southern metropolis of Mykolaiv with rockets, wounding an unspecified variety of civilians.

Shelling by Russian forces killed two folks — a 59-year-old girl and a 65-year-old man — within the Chuhuiv district of Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv province on Sunday, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov reported on Telegram.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported Sunday that Ukrainian forces had killed two of its colonels within the Bakhmut space.

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Jordans reported from Berlin. David Rising in Kyiv and Elise Morton in London contributed to this report.

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