Fearing European hesitation, Ukrainian President unexpectedly visits Germany, a country that has closed its border with Russia again

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise visit to the US Military Command in Europe, Finland closed two border crossings with Russia.

Lực lượng tuần tra biên giới tại Nuijamaa, Phần Lan, cách không xa biên giới nước này với Nga, ngày 18/3/2022. (Nguồn: Getty)

Border patrol in Nuijamaa, Finland, not far from the country's border with Russia, on March 18, 2022. (Source: Getty)

According to Kyiv Independent , on December 14, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise visit to the US Army Command in Europe, headquartered in Wiesbaden, Hessen, Germany.

On social network X (formerly Twitter), President Zelensky said that the visit was made after his visit to Norway. He was "once again convinced of the excellent quality of US military aid to Ukraine", and affirmed that this aid was really needed to win the war with Russia. He expected "the US Congress to soon pass an important decision" to continue supporting Ukraine.

The Ukrainian head of state has visited several countries in recent days, including Argentina, the United States and Norway, in an effort to shore up support for Ukraine amid concerns about growing hesitation among allies.

The US Senate recently passed a record $886 billion defense spending bill that includes $300 million under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. This is a separate bill from the unapproved $111 billion funding request, including more than $61 billion for Ukraine.

The US Army European Command is coordinating support from partners to Ukraine. The brief visit coincided with talks at the European Union (EU) summit in Brussels on allowing accession talks with Ukraine. Later that evening, European Council President Charles Michel announced that the Council had decided to start accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova.

In another development on the same day, the Finnish government said the Nordic country will close its land border crossings with Russia again, officially from December 15, 2023, to January 14, 2024.

Finnish Interior Minister Mari Rantanen said that after the country opened two border crossings, the flow of refugees showed signs of increasing again and this posed a challenge to national security. The document also stated that the two border crossings, Vaalimaa and Niirala, would be closed on the evening of December 15 at 8 p.m. (local time). Thus, all land border crossings between Finland and Russia will be closed until January 14, 2024.

On November 28, the Finnish government first announced the closure of all eight land border crossings with Russia, also in an attempt to stem the flow of refugees and illegal migrants. On December 12, Helsinki announced the reopening of the Vaalimaa and Niirala border crossings, but reversed the decision just two days later.

Finland shares a 1,340 km border with Russia. After being admitted to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in April 2023, the country's border became NATO's common border.

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