Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk held a nearly hour-long telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who initiated the call to report on the situation in Kharkiv.
According to a statement released on Thursday afternoon by the Polish prime minister’s office, the leaders discussed the city’s defense strategies and recent regional events as they prepare for the upcoming NATO summit.
President Zelensky provided an update during the call about his morning meeting with commanders defending the city. Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, currently faces threats from intense Russian military attacks in the eastern region, though it is not directly endangered at the moment.
Amid the Russian offensive, Zelensky has canceled scheduled international meetings in Belgium and Spain to remain in Ukraine, where he met with troops defending the region on Thursday.
Following the call, President Zelensky expressed confidence that peace would eventually return to Ukrainian soil. He also announced that he and Tusk had instructed their teams to immediately start drafting a bilateral security agreement, aiming for an ambitious partnership between the two historical allies.
Furthermore, Zelensky informed Tusk that Russian forces are targeting, among other things, the gas infrastructure in western Ukraine. “Russia’s success threatens Europe’s energy security. We must cooperate to find a way to counteract this,” the Ukrainian president wrote on X.
The AFP news agency reported that since May 9, the Russian army has captured 278 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory, marking the largest territorial gain in the last 18 months of the war, predominantly in the Kharkiv region.
