Portuguese president concerned about escalation in Ukraine

Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has expressed concern over the escalation of the war in Ukraine, following the cancellation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to southern Europe – which the Portuguese leader said had never been confirmed.

Portugal’s president expressed concern about the escalation of the war in Ukraine on Wednesday when asked about the news that Volodymyr Zelensky had cancelled his visit to Spain and Portugal.

“We can’t talk about a cancellation, because the visit had never been confirmed, it was an initiative involving several countries that was apparently under study, but was never confirmed,” said Portugal’s head of state.

“And you can see why it wasn’t confirmed because it requires security conditions, not so much in the countries visited, but above all in the country that is Ukraine, which is at war. So what concerns me is making sure that the evolution of the war in Ukraine is a positive one and not a negative one, and that’s what’s most important,” he added.

On Tuesday, Portuguese Defence Minister Nuno Melo confirmed that a visit by the Ukrainian president to Portugal was being prepared without specifying when or with what programme.

“The visit is being prepared with the reserve it’s supposed to have, and we’ll see in the very near future how everything will turn out,” Nuno Melo told journalists on the sidelines of a visit to the headquarters of the association of disabled members of the Armed Forces in Lisbon.

Citing the Spanish Royal Household, EFE later reported that Zelenskyy had canceled his visits to Spain and Portugal, which were initially scheduled for the end of the week.

(Inês Lima, edited by Cristina cardoso | Lusa.pt)

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