What did Zelenskyy's European tour achieve by 19 May 2023?
A look back at a week of meetings in Rome, Berlin and Chequers, set against continued Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian cities.
What did a week of shuttle diplomacy mean for Ukraine as of 19 May 2023? The days before that date were crowded with meetings abroad for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, even as Russian missiles kept falling at home.
On 13 May 2023, Zelenskyy met Pope Francis in a private audience at the Vatican. The next day, 14 May, he was in Berlin, where he met German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. On 15 May he held talks with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at Chequers. Three capitals in three days made the trip a clear signal of how much Kyiv relied on its partners' attention.
War at home continued
The diplomacy unfolded alongside a steady Russian assault. On 13 May, Russia fired cruise missiles at the western city of Ternopil, injuring two civilians. On 16 May, more than a dozen explosions were reported in Kyiv as Russia launched a missile barrage at the capital and other Ukrainian cities. Ukrainian forces said they had shot down six Kh-47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic missiles.
The contrast was stark: leaders in Western Europe received the Ukrainian president while the capital he had left was under fire again within a day of his visit to Chequers.
A diplomatic row elsewhere
The war also shaped a dispute far from Europe. On 13 May, South Africa said it maintained a neutral and non-aligned stance on the Russo-Ukrainian War. This followed an accusation by the US ambassador, Reuben Brigety, that South Africa had loaded a sanctioned Russian ship with weapons in December 2022. The accusation caused a diplomatic crisis between Washington and Pretoria. The ship, Lady R, had docked at Simon's Town Naval Base and was carrying military cargo; the secretive nature of the docking was part of what made the episode contentious.
Looking back
By 19 May 2023, the picture was one of a Ukraine pressing its case in person across Europe while under continued missile attack, and of a war whose effects reached into relations between states far from the front. The week showed diplomacy and bombardment running side by side.
