Yoon Suk-Yeol, the president of South Korea, paid a surprise visit to Ukraine to show his support for that nation in its conflict with Russia. Korea is to extend its support to Ukraine by $150 million in 2023.
Yoon’s office announced on Saturday that he had visited Poland and Lithuania for NATO summits before travelling to Ukraine with his wife, Kim Keon-Hee. Since Russia invaded Ukraine over 17 months ago, this is his first trip there.
Korea to extends its support to Ukraine
President Yoon noted that from $100 million last year, humanitarian help would climb to $150 million in 2023.
Following a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv, South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol promised to enhance his nation’s humanitarian and non-lethal military support to Ukraine.
The ninth-largest supplier of weapons worldwide, South Korea, has a long-standing policy against sending deadly weaponry to areas where active hostilities are occurring.
However, he stated that Seoul would “expand the scale of supplies from last year, when we provided materials such as helmets and bullet-proof vests,” at a news conference held following the two leaders’ meeting.
Yoon noted that from $100 million last year, humanitarian help would climb to $150 million in 2023.
He added that he and Zelenskyy have decided to work together on the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine. In addition, South Korea will establish a scholarship fund in their honour to encourage more Ukrainian students studying there.
Yoon previously visited Bucha and Irpin, two tiny cities close to Kiev where mass graves and civilian dead were discovered when Russian troops withdrew from the area last year. He placed flowers to a memorial honouring the nation’s war dead.
Yoon’s senior assistant for public affairs, Kim Eun-hye, said in a statement: “The president first toured the Bucha city massacre site close to the capital Kyiv and the city of Irpin, where missile attacks were concentrated on civilian residential areas.”
He claimed that South Korea had already offered assistance to rebuild the Kakhovka dam, which had been demolished a month earlier. The evidence implies Russia had a motivation to inflict devastating flooding, harm agriculture, and jeopardise drinking water supplies in a contentious portion of Ukraine. The Russian and Ukrainian governments have accused one other of blowing up the dam.
“The Republic of Korea’s government is firmly committed to actively joining the United States and other liberal democracies in international efforts to defend the freedom of Ukraine,” Yoon stated.
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