EU Invites Ukraine’s Zelenskyy to Brussels Summit

Europe

BRUSSELS — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been invited to take part in a summit of European Union leaders, the EU said Monday, amid reports he could be in Brussels as soon as this week.

Charles Michel, the president of the European Council of the EU’s national leaders, invited Zelenskyy “to participate in person in a future summit,” a spokesman for Michel tweeted.

The spokesman, Barend Leyts, did not say when Zelenskyy might take up the invitation and specified that no further information would be provided “for security reasons.”

The next EU summit takes place Thursday and Friday of this week in Brussels.

Earlier in the day, multiple media outlets reported that Zelenskyy could attend the summit and may also address a session of the European Parliament.

EU officials had declined to comment on those reports. Some noted that if news of such a visit leaked in advance, it could pose a greater security risk for Ukraine’s wartime leader and lessen the chances of him going ahead with the trip.

Zelenskyy’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the reports.

If Zelenskyy does visit Brussels this week, it would be only the second foreign trip he has taken since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last Feb. 24.

In December, Zelenskyy visited Washington to meet President Joe Biden and address the U.S. Congress.__VOA News