BSS
  15 Jan 2025, 15:23

Zelensky, Poland's PM Tusk to meet in Warsaw on Wednesday

WARSAW, Jan 15, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk will host Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky for talks in Warsaw on Wednesday, Poland said, just days before US president-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated.

Zelensky has been holding a flurry of meetings with Ukraine's backers ahead of Trump's return to the White House.

The Republican has promised to bring a swift end to the fighting when he enters office next week, raising fears in Ukraine that it will be forced to make major territorial concessions in exchange for peace.

EU and NATO member Poland has been one of Ukraine's biggest allies after Russia launched a war against Kyiv in February 2022 and has maintained its support despite historic rows frequently straining ties between the neighbours.

"Prime Minister Donald Tusk will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Warsaw on Wednesday," the Polish government said.

The Ukrainian presidency confirmed that Zelensky had arrived in Poland on Wednesday morning.

According to Polish media, Zelensky's talks in Warsaw will be largely focused on resolving a decades-long dispute over the WWII Volyn killings of Poles in what is now Western Ukraine.

Tusk, whose ruling pro-EU alliance faces a presidential election in May, is under pressure from the national conservatives at home to secure exhumations of victims of the massacre.

On Friday, Tusk hailed "a decision on the first exhumations of Polish victims" as a "breakthrough" but both Kyiv and Warsaw remained tight-lipped on details of what has been agreed on.