Yoon’s office said he traveled to Ukraine with his wife, Kim Gun-hee, after traveling to Lithuania for the NATO summit and Poland
Release Date – 01:00 AM, Sun – July 23rd 16th
Kyiv: South Korean President Yoon Hee-yeol made a surprise visit to Ukraine on Saturday, offering support to the invaded country in its war with Russia while demonstrating South Korea’s cooperation with NATO.
Yoon’s office said he traveled to Ukraine with his wife, Kim Gun-hee, after traveling to Lithuania for the NATO summit and Poland. It was his first visit since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly 17 months ago.
Yin visited Buta and Irpin, two small cities near Kiev where civilian bodies were found in the streets and in mass graves after Russian troops withdrew from the capital region last year. He laid flowers at the country’s war dead memorial.
Kim Eun-hye, Yoon’s senior adviser on press affairs, said in a statement that the South Korean leader was scheduled to hold talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later in the day.
South Korea, a key U.S. ally in Asia, has joined international sanctions against Russia and provided humanitarian and financial support to Ukraine.
But the Asian country, a growing arms exporter, has not provided weapons to Ukraine in line with its long-standing policy of not supplying arms to countries actively involved in the conflict.
Earlier this month, Yin said in response to questions from The Associated Press that demining equipment, ambulances and other non-military supplies were “prepared” at Ukraine’s request.
South Korea has offered support to replace the Kakhovka dam, which was destroyed last month, he said. The Russian and Ukrainian governments have accused each other of blowing up the dam, but evidence suggests Russia was more motivated to cause deadly flooding, endanger crops and threaten drinking water supplies in disputed areas of Ukraine.
“The government of the Republic of Korea is firmly committed to actively joining the international efforts of the United States and other liberal democracies to defend freedom in Ukraine,” Yoon said in a written response to The Associated Press.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called on the country to provide direct military support to Ukraine during a visit to South Korea in January, saying Kiev desperately needed weapons to fend off a prolonged Russian aggression.
South Korea is not a member of NATO, but it is considered a global partner in the NATO military alliance, along with Japan, Pakistan and a handful of other countries. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited Ukraine in March.
When Yoon met Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska in Seoul in May, the president said he would expand South Korea’s non-lethal aid to Ukraine. Yoon’s spokesman, Lee Do-woon, said at the time that Zelenska did not raise a request for South Korean arms supplies in his conversation with Yoon.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, South Korea has struck a multibillion-dollar deal to supply NATO member Poland with tanks, howitzers, fighter jets and other weapons systems.
A U.S. official said in November that the U.S. had agreed to buy 100,000 rounds of artillery from South Korean manufacturers for Ukraine, but South Korean officials insisted the ammunition was to replenish depleted U.S. stocks.
Yin and Zelensky met in May on the sidelines of the G7 summit of industrialized nations in Hiroshima, Japan. Yoon’s office said at the time that Zelensky thanked South Korea for sending humanitarian supplies such as medicines, computers and generators, and asked for more non-lethal items.
The two leaders also agreed to work to assist South Korean companies in postwar reconstruction projects in Ukraine, according to Yoon’s office.
Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said: “Yoon Eun-hye’s visit to Ukraine reflects his foreign policy with a global perspective and shows South Korea’s commitment to defending the rules-based international order with its NATO partners. Solidarity.” “Seoul’s support for Ukraine includes not only humanitarian aid, but also arms sales to NATO countries that provide military aid to Kiev, and post-conflict infrastructure reconstruction plans.”
Yin and his wife’s visit came two days after Russia launched yet another Iranian-made drone over the Kiev region. Ukrainian officials said their air defenses intercepted the drone, but the wreckage fell in four districts of the capital, injuring two people and destroying several houses.
Ukrainian forces shot down 10 Russian drones across the country overnight on Friday, although Kiev was not under attack hours before the South Korean president’s arrival, the Ukrainian Air Force reported Saturday.
The Air Force added in the Telegram post that Moscow launched six Iranian-made Shahed drones over southern and eastern Ukraine overnight, four of which were shot down. It did not immediately provide details of any casualties or damage.
In Ukraine’s southern Zaporozhye province, Ukraine has been conducting a counteroffensive to retake occupied territory, with 45 air and artillery strikes between Friday and Saturday, Governor Yury Malashka reported.
Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Saturday that Russian troops used mortars, artillery, drones, tanks, planes and multiple rocket launchers against neighboring Kherson province during the same period. 70 shelling rounds were carried out. He said no civilians were injured.
Russian shelling over the past day has killed a civilian, Pavlo Kirilenko, the governor of Donetsk province in eastern Ukraine, reported on Saturday. Ukrainian forces have been conducting a counteroffensive in the region, slowly advancing from Velikanovo Silka towards the Russian-occupied city of Mariupol.
