Taking a train across Ukraine to spend some quality time in Kiev may not be anybody’s idea of fun right now, but the security risks of traveling within a war zone did not deter the prime ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia from doing just that on Tuesday.

Of course, the trio of European leaders — Poland’s Mateusz Morawiecki, Petr Fiala of the Czech Republic, and Janez Janša of Slovenia — did not have sightseeing on their agenda but rather were on a high-level mission to meet with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and prime minister, Denys Shmyhal.

The visit had been planned for several days but was kept secret for security reasons. Mr. Morawiecki’s chief of staff said that the leaders had traveled together by train from Poland into Ukraine on Tuesday morning.

The show of support for Ukraine as President Putin’s Russian military bombardment came closer to the center of the capital is arguably just a symbolic gesture, but one that had to entail many layers of logistics and that may yet resonate beyond the confines of Kiev. 

Mr. Morawiecki said in a Facebook post, “Today, on the 20th day of Putin’s criminal aggression on Ukraine, together with Vice Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński, Prime Minister of Czech Petr Fiala and Prime Minister of Slovenia Janez Janša we are going to Kiev to show Ukrainians our solidarity.”

For his part, Mr. Fiala said via Facebook that the visit was “organized in consultation with the President of the European Council Charles Michel and the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. The purpose of the visit is to confirm the unequivocal support of the entire European Union for the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.” He added that the leaders will present a broad package of support for Ukraine and Ukrainians.

Despite Mr. Fiala’s post, officials from the 27-nation EU insisted that the trio had undertaken the trip independently, the Associated Press reported.

The three Central European nations are former communist countries that now are part of the EU and NATO. Ukraine is seeking entry to the EU, but the prospects of the country joining NATO — one that Russia deems unacceptable — are dim. Mr. Zelensky has said that Ukraine “will not become a member of NATO,” multiple news sources reported today.

Mr. Janša 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 Zelensky made an emotional appeal to the European Parliament.

Mr. Kaczynski’s presence on the journey carries a certain symbolic significance. He is the surviving twin of the late president, Lech Kaczynski, who died when his plane went down on Russian soil in 2010. He and 95 other Poles, among them political and military leaders, were traveling to commemorate Poles executed by the Soviet secret police during World War II.

A Polish investigation determined that the jet’s downing was an accident caused by fog and pilot error.

Mr. Morawiecki said on Facebook that the visit to the Ukrainian capital was agreed to by the EU and that the United Nations was also informed.

The Twitter feeds of Mr. Michel and Ms. von der Leyen, often a conduit to show support for any initiative backing Ukraine, remained mum on the visit of the central European leaders.

Ahead of his departure, Mr. Morawiecki on Facebook recalled how the former Polish president, Lech Kaczynski, had made a visit to the capital of Georgia in 2008 when that ex-Soviet country was under attack by Russia.

He quoted Kaczynski, who said at the time in Tbilisi: “Today Georgia, tomorrow Ukraine, the day after tomorrow the Baltic states, and then maybe it’s time for my country, for Poland.”

With Associated Press