Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024, at the UN headquarters. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
| Photo Credit: AP

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is again seeking political and other support on Wednesday (October 9, 2024) from a dozen countries in southeast Europe at a summit in Croatia, whose President isn’t attending in a sign of the divided views on the war with Russia.

Mr. Zelenskyy is in Dubrovnik for a meeting with Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and other leaders. Croatian President Zoran Milanovic has criticized Western policies regarding the war as Croatia’s political leadership is split over support for Ukraine.

“As long as I’m the President of Croatia, I will not sign for Croatian soldiers to be present in Ukraine,” Mr. Milanovic said Tuesday (October 8, 2024), asserting that “the NATO mission to train soldiers in Ukraine is nonsense.”

Mr. Zelenskyy said on X that “we will discuss international efforts to bring peace closer … our joint response with partners to security challenges, as well as cooperation on the path to the European Union and NATO.”

Kyiv is still awaiting word from Western partners on its repeated requests to use the long-range weapons they provide to hit targets on Russian soil.

Some Balkan states have been providing Ukraine with short-range ammunition. At a previous summit with southeast European countries in February, Mr. Zelenskyy pleaded for more to repel Russian advances.

In Dubrovnik, Mr, Zelenskyy will sign an agreement with Croatia on further cooperation, particularly regarding humanitarian aid, demining and war crimes prosecution experience that Croatia has from its own 1991-95 war.

Besides Croatia, the summit is being attended by premiers, Presidents or Foreign Ministers from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey.

Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic’s government is the only one in Europe that has not imposed sanctions on Russia over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, although Vucic has repeatedly said that Serbia respects Ukraine’s “territorial integrity.”

Summit participants are expected to pass a declaration condemning Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and supporting Mr. Zelenskyy’s peace effort, Ukraine’s membership in NATO and its reconstruction after the war, Croatia’s state HRT television said.

“Respect of territorial integrity and sovereignty of all states is common for all states of southeast Europe as a basis for peace in Europe since the end of World War II,” said Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic.