From BZ/dpa
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has arrived in Kyiv for her second visit to Ukraine since the beginning of the war.
With the trip she wanted to show “that we will continue to support Ukraine as long as it is necessary – with the delivery of weapons, with humanitarian and financial support,” she said on Saturday morning when she arrived.
With the visit, the Greens politician also wants to send a signal against the threat of war fatigue in Germany. “It’s clear to me that Putin is counting on us getting tired of sympathizing with the suffering of Ukraine,” she said. “He believes he can divide our societies with lies and blackmail us with energy supplies. And that he can sap our energy to defend ourselves against this brutal attack on the values of all of us.” Putin’s calculations shouldn’t and won’t work out. “Because all of Europe knows that Ukraine is defending our peace order.”
By special train to Kyiv
The Greens politician traveled on Saturday night with a special train and a small delegation from Poland to Kyiv. The airspace over Ukraine has been closed since the beginning of the war. In Kyiv, Baerbock wants to hold talks with Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, among others. The rest of the program was initially kept secret for security reasons.
The Greens politician traveled on Saturday night with a special train and a small delegation from Poland to Kyiv Photo: picture alliance/dpa
On arrival, Baerbock recalled that the Ukrainians had been fighting the Russian attackers for more than six months. In this terrible time between hope and fear, the people in Ukraine also trusted in Germany’s help. “I traveled to Kyiv today to show that they can continue to count on us.”
Baerbock wants to address mine clearance – Ukrainians want tanks
Baerbock named two specific topics that are important to her during the visit: German help in clearing mines and support in dealing with war crimes that have been committed. Your Ukrainian interlocutors are likely to reiterate their calls for heavy weapons. During his visit to Germany last week, Prime Minister Denys Schmyhal demanded the delivery of German Leopard 2 main battle tanks from Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD).
Scholz then emphasized that Germany wanted to concentrate on providing air defense systems and artillery – and above all not going it alone. So far, no other NATO ally has sent Western-style main battle tanks to Ukraine.
The federal government has already delivered or promised Ukraine weapons worth 734 million euros, including some heavy weapons: ten heavy artillery pieces of the Panzerhaubitze 2000 type, 15 anti-aircraft tanks, three multiple rocket launchers and three armored recovery vehicles. The delivery of four Iris-T air defense systems is also planned. However, at an international conference at the US air base in Ramstein in Rhineland-Palatinate, Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) refrained from further commitments for heavy weapons.
In the meantime, some ministers have already been to Kyiv
In mid-May, Baerbock was the first German government member to travel to Kyiv since the beginning of the war. At that time, she reopened the German embassy and met President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Kuleba. She also visited the partially destroyed suburbs of Bucha and Irpin.
Scholz visited Kyiv in mid-June together with French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis. The four heads of state and government paved the way for Ukraine’s EU candidate status. But Development Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD), Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (Greens) and Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) have also visited Ukraine in the last six months. Most recently, Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) were there from the federal government six weeks ago.
