The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, has accepted an invitation from the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, to visit Portugal and the teams “are still working on the date” to make it happen, the Presidency announced today.
“The Ukrainian President has accepted the invitation of the President of the Republic to visit Portugal,” reads a statement published on the official website of the Presidency of the Republic.
According to the same note, Zelensky’s trip to Granada to take part in the European Political Community Summit was decided “at the last moment”, so the visit will be “very short”, making a possible visit to Portugal impossible at the moment.
“The respective teams are working on the date for such a visit,” added the Presidency of the Republic.
At the beginning of the week, several Portuguese media outlets announced a possible visit by Volodymyr Zelensky to Portugal on Friday.
Lusa contacted the Ukrainian Presidency, but was unable to confirm that Zelensky intended to visit the country this week.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa invited his Ukrainian counterpart to visit Portugal in August, during a visit to the capital of the country that has been trying to repel an invasion by Russia for over a year and a half.
At the time, on the occasion of Ukraine’s independence day celebrations on August 24, the Portuguese head of state said, during a speech he gave in Ukrainian, that Portugal will always support the country’s independence: “Portugal will always be, and is, with your independence. Without your legitimate defense there will be no peace and security in Europe.”
The President of the Republic also spoke during a summit on Crimea, the Ukrainian territory annexed by Moscow in 2014, and said that any peace solution to the conflict that excludes Crimea’s reintegration into Ukrainian territory is “noise”. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa also argued that Portugal undeniably supports Ukrainian aspirations to join the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The Ukrainian President has yet to be awarded the Grand Collar of the Order of Liberty. Zelensky has chosen to reject any decorations as long as the war continues.
