Leaders of 3 EU states head to Kyiv as attacks intensify

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The prime ministers of Poland, Czech Republic and Slovenia were traveling by train on Tuesday to Kyiv in a show of support for Ukraine as bombardment by the Russian military came closer to the center of the capital.

The three leaders went ahead with the trip despite worries within the European Union about the security risks of traveling within a war zone. No further details about the itinerary were disclosed except that they will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

Prime Ministers Mateusz Morawiecki of Poland, Petr Fiala of the Czech Republic and Janez Jansa of Slovenia said they were on an EU mission. But officials from the 27-nation bloc insisted that the trio had undertaken the trip independently.

The three Central European nations are former communist countries that now belong to the EU and NATO. Underlining the deteriorating security situation in Kyiv, a series of strikes hit a residential neighborhood in the city again on Tuesday.

Jansa described the visit as a way to send a message that Ukraine is a European country that deserves to be accepted one day into the EU. In fact, the trip by the three prime ministers comes two weeks to the day after Zelenskyy made an emotional appeal to the European Parliament.

“We are fighting also to be equal members of Europe," Zelenskyy told EU lawmakers on March 1. "I believe that today we are showing everybody that is what we are.”

Jansa said the war has woken Europeans up to idea that the bloc represents fundamental ideas that are under threat — and which Ukrainians are defending with their lives.

"Thank you for not only defending your homeland and Europe as a territory, but for defending the very core of European values and our way of life. Your fight is...