Zelenskyy in Argentina for Support 12/10 09:35

Zelenskyy in Argentina for Support     12/10 09:35

   Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is heading to Buenos Aires to 
witness the swearing-in on Sunday of Argentina's new president, Javier Milei, 
Zelenskyy's office said.

   KYIV, Ukraine (AP) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is heading to 
Buenos Aires to witness the swearing-in on Sunday of Argentina's new president, 
Javier Milei, Zelenskyy's office said.

   It is the Ukrainian leader's first-ever trip to Latin America as Kyiv 
continues to court support among developing nations for its 21-month-old fight 
against Russia's invading forces.

   A political outsider who has railed against what he calls entrenched 
official corruption in Argentina and promised to uproot the political 
establishment, Milei ran on a pro-Western foreign policy platform, repeatedly 
expressing distrust of Moscow and Beijing.

   Zelenskyy phoned Milei shortly after the Argentinian's electoral victory, 
thanking him for his "clear support for Ukraine" which he described in social 
media posts as "well-noticed and appreciated by Ukrainians."

   In its readout of the call published shortly later, Milei's office said he 
had offered to host a summit between Ukraine and Latin American states, a 
potential boon to Kyiv's monthslong effort to strengthen its relationships with 
countries of the global south.

   Zelenskyy and other senior Ukrainian officials have repeatedly presented 
Ukraine's war against Russia as resistance against colonial aggression, hoping 
to win support from Asian, African and Latin American states that in the past 
struggled to free themselves from foreign domination, sometimes turning to 
Moscow for support against Western powers.

   According to Zelenskyy's official website, he broke his journey to Argentina 
to meet with the prime minister of the West African country of Cape Verde, 
Ulisses Correia e Silva, thanking him for his support for Kyiv's diplomatic 
initiatives and discussing efforts to boost Ukrainian grain exports to Africa. 
It was not immediately clear where the meeting took place.

   Zelenskyy expressed his appreciation for Cape Verde's backing of U.N. 
resolutions supporting Ukraine's territorial integrity and calling for the 
withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory before peace talks can 
begin.

   The African country previously supported U.N. documents condemning Russia's 
annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

   According to Zelenskyy's website, he and Correia e Silva also discussed 
Kyiv's efforts to expand a corridor for grain exports in the Black Sea that has 
seen over 7 million metric tons of Ukrainian produce shipped out since its 
inception, months after Moscow pulled out of a U.N.-brokered deal to facilitate 
shipments of Ukrainian and Russian food and fertilizer to countries in need, as 
well as a proposal to establish transport and storage hubs for Ukrainian grain 
in Africa.

   In other developments:

   -- Russian shelling over the past 24 hours killed two elderly women and 
wounded two more civilians in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region, local Gov. 
Oleh Syniehubov reported on Sunday morning. In a Telegram update, Syniehubov 
said that both women died in the same attack in the province's east, parts of 
which run close to the front line and have seen intense fighting in recent 
weeks.

   In the Kherson region in the south, Russian shelling on Saturday and 
overnight killed one civilian and wounded four others, local Gov. Oleksandr 
Prokudin said on Telegram on Sunday.