UPDATE - Top European officials make unannounced visit to Kyiv on Freedom Day

UPDATES WITH ARRIVAL OF MOLDOVAN, EU COUNCIL PRESIDENTS TO KYIV; CHANGES HEADLINE, DECK, LEDE; EDITS THROUGHOUT

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) – Top European officials on Tuesday arrived in Ukraine's capital Kyiv on unannounced visits on the Dignity and Freedom Day, which this year marks the 10th anniversary of the Maidan Revolution.

“Minister (Boris) Pistorius traveled to Ukraine to personally see the current situation and the effectiveness of German support,” said a statement by the German Defense Ministry on X.

The statement said that Pistorius began his visit by laying flowers at the Memorial to the Heavenly Hundred Heroes, dedicated to those that died during the Maidan protests.

According to a statement by the Ukrainian presidency, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and first lady Olena Zelenska placed icon lamps at the memorial together with visiting Moldovan President Maia Sandu.

Separately, European Council President Charles Michel also announced his arrival to Kyiv in a statement on X, saying: "Good to be back in Kyiv – among friends."

No further details have yet been published about the visits.

Ukraine’s Day of Dignity and Freedom commemorates the Orange Revolution, a series of nationwide protests against allegations of electoral fraud during the 2004 presidential elections, and the Maidan Revolution, mass protests which led to the ouster of then President Viktor Yanukovych, who was widely perceived as a pro-Russian ruler.

A day earlier, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin also made an unannounced visit to Kyiv, as he held talks with Zelenskyy and his Ukrainian counterpart Rustem Umerov.