Zelenskyy visits The Hague as Dutch announce €1.2bn aid package

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet prime minister Rob Jetten in The Hague on Wednesday on his first visit to the Netherlands since Jetten’s centre-right coalition gained power in February.

Zelenskyy will hold a press conference in the Catshuis, the prime minister’s official residence, after talking to Jetten, defence minister Dilan Yesilgöz and foreign affairs minister Tom Berendsen.

Later in the day he will attend a reception with king Willem-Alexander in Huis ten Bosch, the monarch’s residential palace in The Hague.

The Dutch government also announced it would be spending €40 million to help repair Ukrainian energy facilities that have been damaged by Russian military strikes aimed at cutting off supplies during the winter.

The investment, announced by foreign trade minister Sjoerd Sjoerdsma during a visit to Kyiv, is part of a €1.2 billion package of non-military aid for the next three years.

“It is very important for the safety of us all to keep supporting Ukraine so that they can keep up the fight,” Sjoerdsma said.

The cabinet is also buying €55 million worth of components such as generators, transformers and compressors from Dutch companies to send to Ukraine.

A total of €136 million has been made available and the government has increased its export credit insurance to reduce the risk to companies that send equipment to the war zone.

Spring visit

Jetten first met Zelenskyy as prime minister on a visit to Kyiv in March, two weeks after his cabinet was sworn in. The Ukrainian president said the hastily arranged trip showed his country remained a “priority” for the Dutch government.

Zelenskyy was last in the Netherlands in December, when he had lunch with the outgoing prime minister Dick Schoof and addressed both houses of parliament.

It was his fourth speech to Dutch legislators since the full-scale Russian invasion began in February 2022.

The visit marked the launch of a claims commission backed by 30 countries, which will assess war-related damage in Ukraine and arrange to pay compensation from a dedicated fund.