Zelenskyy believes Trump could be first world leader to fly to Ukraine

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes that US President-elect Donald Trump could be the first world leader to fly to Ukraine, but that this will happen after the war is over.

Source: Zelenskyy in an interview with American podcaster Lex Fridman

Quote: "Yes, I am looking forward to it [the reopening of Kyiv Airport – ed.]. Maybe we will open it, but only, and you must understand, if the war is over. There must be sustainable peace – and air defence systems, to be honest. 

Let’s focus on the airport in Rzeszów, which, as you know very well, is handling important cargo for Ukraine in Poland: there are Patriot systems there. Because everyone understands what the risk is. Well, Russia is a risk. 

And today, to take, for example, the air defence system of one city or another that is being shelled and move it to the airport – well, that would be dishonest. People are more important than planes. 

But there will be a moment… I think that the war will end and President Trump may be the first leader to travel here by airplane. I think it would be symbolic."

Background:

• Passenger flights over Ukraine were completely closed on 24 February 2022.
• In April 2023, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol) predicted that restrictions on flights in the airspace of Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Moldova would remain in place until 2029.
• In October 2023, Boryspil International Airport announced that it was ready to start accepting planes a month after the end of the war.
• In December 2023, Andrii Yermak, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said that one of Ukraine's civilian airports was likely to open before the end of the war.
• In October 2024, the Ministry of Communities Development, together with the State Aviation Administration, Ukrainian State Air Traffic Services Enterprise, the Air Force Command, and international airport managers, presented a roadmap for opening Ukraine's airspace under martial law.

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