Zelensky to lobby for more support at EU summit

Volodymyr Zelensky is scheduled to travel to Brussels today to attend an EU summit as the guest of honor, where he will urge allies to send more weaponry and fighter jets "as soon as possible" and call for a quick start to EU membership negotiations.

Only as his second trip outside of Ukraine since russia launched its invasion over a year ago, the Ukrainian president began the surprise tour of Europe on Wednesday with stops in Britain and France, the Guardian reports.

Zelensky traveled to France the day before to meet with Scholz and Macron. He visited King Charles III in London earlier in the day and spoke to parliament.

During his visit to Great Britain, Volodymyr Zelensky and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak signed the London Declaration — a document aimed at deepening the partnership between Kyiv and London.

After an evening meeting at the Elysee Palace on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and French leader Emmanuel Macron are to fly together to Brussels for the summit of European Union leaders, according to BFMTV.

According to a press release from the Elysée Palace, they will depart at 8:30 a.m. from the Villacouble air base near Paris. Arrival in Brussels is expected at 10:00 a.m.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stated that his participation in the EU summit in Brussels will be "a signal of European solidarity."

The Ukrainian president is expected to lobby EU leaders for more arms, namely, fighter jets and longer-range missiles. He will also make a case for Ukraine's more speedy accession to the EU.

At the evening press conference with Macon and Scholz in Paris, Zelensky said:

"The sooner Ukraine gets long-range heavy weaponry, the sooner our pilots get planes, the sooner this Russian aggression will end and we can return to peace in Europe.

"There is very little time."

A government source told Reuters that Italy's PM Giorgia Meloni would also meet with Zelensky at a European Council meeting.