South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol made a shock go to to Ukraine on Saturday, providing an obvious present of help for the nation in its conflict towards Russia.
Yoon’s workplace mentioned he travelled to Ukraine along with his spouse, Kim Keon Hee, following journeys to Lithuania for a NATO summit and to Poland. It is his first go to since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly 17 months in the past.
Yoon toured Bucha and Irpin, a pair of small cities close to Kyiv the place our bodies of civilians had 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 useless.
The South Korean chief was scheduled to carry talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later within the day, Yoon’s senior adviser for press affairs, Kim Eun-hye, mentioned in a press release.
South Korea, a key US ally in Asia, joined worldwide sanctions towards Russia and has supplied Ukraine with humanitarian and monetary help to Ukraine.
However the Asian nation, a rising arms exporter, has not supplied weapons to Ukraine consistent with its long-standing coverage of not supplying arms to nations actively engaged in battle.
Earlier this month, Yoon mentioned in written responses to questions from The Related Press that provides of de-mining tools, ambulances and different non-military supplies are within the works following a request from Ukraine.
He mentioned South Korea already supplied help to exchange the Kakhovka Dam, which was destroyed final month. The Russian and Ukrainian governments have accused the opposite of blowing up the dam, however the proof suggests Russia had extra of a motive to trigger lethal flooding, endanger crops and threaten ingesting water provides in a contested a part of Ukraine.
“The federal government of the Republic of Korea is firmly dedicated to actively becoming a member of the US and different liberal democracies in worldwide efforts to defend the liberty of Ukraine,” Yoon mentioned in written responses to the AP.
Throughout a January go to to South Korea, NATO Secretary-Basic Jens Stoltenberg known as for the nation to supply direct army help to Ukraine, saying Kyiv was in pressing want of weapons to battle off the extended Russian invasion.
In Might, when Yoon met Ukrainian first girl Olena Zelenska in Seoul, the president mentioned he would increase South Korea’s non-lethal help to Ukraine. Yoon’s spokesperson, Lee Do Woon, mentioned on the time that Zelenska made no request for South Korean weapons provides throughout her dialog with Yoon.
Since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, South Korea has reached billions of {dollars} value of offers to supply tanks, howitzers, fighter jets and different weapons programs to NATO member Poland.
An American official mentioned in November that the US had agreed to purchase 1,00,000 artillery rounds from South Korean producers to supply to Ukraine, though South Korean officers have maintained that the munitions had been meant to refill depleted US shares.
