With the heads of three major European states converging at the same time on the same point, the rendezvous must have been in the works for weeks.
Yesterday Wednesday when leaving Romania to go to Moldova, Emmanuel Macron had answered neither "yes" nor "no" to the rumor which affirmed that he was then going to set sail for Ukraine.
Yesterday evening, the plane of the French Republic which transported the president, went to Poland, on an aerodrome close to the border, then the French delegation took the direction of the station of Rzeszów, in the Polish Carpathians, to 80 km from the Ukrainian border.
Read alsoWar in Ukraine: Emmanuel Macron's visit to kyiv in pictures
A sleeper train specially chartered by Ukraine lined up alongside freight trains, along a dirt platform strewn with weeds.
Flight attendants carried small signs in the colors of France, Germany and Italy to lead.
Without the police lined up on the dock, the deployment might have gone unnoticed.
The three leaders met on the train to settle their positions against Volodymyr Zelensky.
AFP/Pool/Ludovic Marin AFP or licensors
At midnight, Emmanuel Macron, the German Chancellor and the President of the Italian Council of Ministers boarded the train.
Shortly after, the three leaders met in the lounge area of the car reserved for the French president to stall their discussions with Zelensky.
Mario Draghi had to cross the wagon of the French press to arrive at his counterpart.
A photo tour was carried out.
We see the three men relaxed, seated around a table, a glass of water and ice cubes in front of them.
They reportedly stayed together until after 2:30 a.m.
“A very important day for Ukraine, for Europe”
Arriving in kyiv around 8:35 a.m. (French time), the three leaders were welcomed by their respective ambassadors and Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.
“We are carrying a message of European unity,” smiled the president on his arrival.
“I think we are at a time when we, the European Union, need to send clear political signals to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people in a context where they have been resisting heroically for several months” , he explained Wednesday morning from a Romanian air base used by NATO special forces.
"It's a very important day for Ukraine, for Europe, for the stability of the world," said French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna this morning.
The delegations headed to the Intercontinental Hotel in central kyiv to freshen up before meeting President Zelensky.
They are also expected to go "to a war site where massacres have been committed", in the nearby town of Irpin.
