Rutte: The Netherlands can rebuild Ukrainian port | Inland
Kherson has been occupied by Russia since March 2, but Ukraine plans to recapture the city. “Ultimately, you also want to provide expertise in things you are good at,” says Rutte. “The Netherlands is good at port development, at agriculture and at everything that has to do with water. We can offer that expertise throughout Ukraine. And those things come together very nicely around Kherson.”
‘Random shot’
On an unannounced visit to Kiev, Prime Minister Mark Rutte also promised the Ukrainian government to send more weapons.
In Butsha – a suburb of Kiev – Rutte talked to a pastor on Monday morning. “This is where the images came from of people who were shot randomly on the street,” Rutte said from Kiev on Monday evening. “The pastor I spoke to knew them. He was the shepherd of those people. He seems to be bringing the community back together, all corpses buried. Really awful.”
The fact that Prime Minister Rutte sounds emotional may also be due to the severe cold that he has been walking around for a few days. He tests himself regularly, he says: it is not corona. “Everyone gets a cold from time to time, I’ll survive it.” The images of the houses, churches and schools built by Russia touch him. “This is very impressive.”
Rutte spoke to his colleague Zelenski . during his visit
REUTERS
‘Timing very well’
It is the first time since the Russian invasion – at the end of February – that Rutte is visiting Ukraine. Monday morning he arrived by train from Poland, to start the return journey to the Netherlands in the evening. His arrival is quite ‘late’: most European heads of government – including the Prime Minister of Luxembourg – have already been to Kiev.
“That goes the way it does,” says Rutte. “I have a lot of contact with chairman Volodomir Zelenski, I call him regularly. Minister Hoekstra has also been here. I myself was in Kiev shortly before the raid. I think the timing is very good now: we were able to discuss many issues that are important in the phase the war is in now.”
Rutte on the enormous need that Zelensky has for more heavy weaponry. “I said we want to help him with that. We’ll get through it once with our own weapons stocks, but then we can always happen for other countries. We are also encouraging other countries – which are not doing much yet – to do more. I’m not naming names.”
Support the Dutch
Rutte also to help rebuild Ukraine. The Netherlands may therefore want to ‘adopt’ the region around Kherson. That port city – north of the Crimea – is still occupied by the Russians. But Ukraine is on the rise in the area. “We do want it to be more than a symbol,” says Rutte. “We can offer our expertise throughout Ukraine, not just in Kherson.”
Doesn’t the prime minister fear that support among the Dutch for Ukraine is crumbling, now that the prices for food and energy in their own country are skyrocketing? “No,” he says. “I think the vast majority of the Netherlands feels – not only in head, but also in heart and stomach – that this is about something very solid. Simply: who are we? Our values. If Russia wins this war, it is a danger for the Netherlands.”