Russia has suffered one strategic defeat after another in its war against Ukraine – Belgian PM

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, whose country currently holds the presidency of the EU Council, has highlighted Russia's failures during a memorial ceremony in the town of Hostomel (Kyiv Oblast), marking the second anniversary of Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Source: Interfax-Ukraine news agency, citing European Pravda

Quote: "Russia's war against Ukraine has changed a lot in Ukraine and around the world. Russia suffered one strategic defeat after another. NATO has become more effective and has once again become the centre of Europe's collective security... The Russian Navy was destroyed. Russian weapons proved to be no match for Western ones."

Details: The prime minister added that none of this would have happened if such crucial battles had not taken place in Hostomel, which enabled Ukraine to carry on fighting.

"The Russians tried to create a bridgehead in Hostomel... but were defeated. The Russian defeat in Hostomel was the beginning of the end of the Russian attempt to capture Kyiv," De Kroo stressed.

The Belgian prime minister is one of the senior officials who have travelled to Kyiv to mark the second anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. They also include Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson also arrived in Kyiv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a video of him symbolically greeting the arriving Western senior officials at the Hostomel airport, which the Russian army wanted to use as a springboard for an airborne assault and a subsequent rapid capture of Kyiv.

Reports of the expected arrival of von der Leyen and the Belgian prime minister emerged unofficially on Friday.

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