What Moldova's resignation and Zelenskyy's tour showed on 10 February 2023
A look back at how the war in Ukraine shaped politics in Kyiv's diplomacy and in neighbouring Moldova.
What did the war in Ukraine mean for politics in the region on 10 February 2023? On that day, Moldovan prime minister Natalia Gavrilița resigned amid an economic crisis and the collateral effects of the ongoing war in neighbouring Ukraine.
The resignation came two days after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy travelled abroad. On 8 February 2023 he visited the United Kingdom, his second trip outside Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion. His first was a December 2022 visit to the United States.
A diplomatic itinerary
In the UK, Zelenskyy met King Charles III and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and addressed members of parliament at Westminster Hall in the Houses of Parliament. As reported at the time, the trip was to be followed by a visit to France, where he would meet President Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The sequence shows a Ukrainian leader taking his case directly to major European capitals. It was only his second journey beyond Ukraine's borders since the invasion began, and it brought together a monarch, a prime minister, a parliament and, in France, two further European leaders.
Pressure on a neighbour
Moldova's situation offered a different view of the same war. Gavrilița's departure was linked, as reported at the time, to two pressures: an economic crisis and the war's collateral effects. In that account, the conflict was not confined to the battlefield but reached the domestic politics of a neighbouring state, where it contributed to the end of a prime minister's tenure.
Taken together, the events of 8 and 10 February 2023 point to two sides of the war's political reach. One was diplomatic: Kyiv's leader seeking support in the UK, France and Germany. The other was domestic: a neighbouring government losing its head amid economic strain.
The resignation, it should be said, was tied to a combination of factors rather than to the war alone, since the economic crisis was cited alongside it. Still, the timing underlines how closely events in Ukraine and politics in the wider region were connected in early 2023.
