CDU leader Merz meets Ukrainian President Selenskyj in Kyiv
“Merz met Selenskyj. That will hurt the Social Democrats in Berlin.”
During his visit to Kyiv, CDU chairman Friedrich Merz met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Both spoke to each other for a good hour, said a Merz spokesman. WELT reporter Michael Wüllenweber reports from Kyiv.
CDU leader Friedrich Merz also met the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj in Kiev for an hour-long talk. Merz had previously visited the town of Irpin and was shocked by the victims of the Russian attack.
CDU boss Friedrich Merz met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his visit to Kyiv. The hour-long conversation was “extraordinarily good in terms of atmosphere and content,” said Merz on Twitter on Tuesday. Merz first wanted to talk to Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) about the content, said the spokesman for the CDU leader.
Merz had previously visited the town of Irpin and was shocked by the victims of the Russian attack. “The mayor has just described to me in very impressive words what happened here, what victims are to be mourned here, but also what a great achievement,” said Merz. “I think we in Germany are still obliged to help this country and especially to help a city like Irpin to rebuild.”
On Tuesday evening, Merz also met the Mayor of Kiev, Vitali Klitschko. During his visit to the Ukrainian capital, Merz was dismayed by the destruction caused by the Russian war of aggression and accused Russia of “crimes”. “I was really completely shaken here, I still am, you can’t get these pictures out of your head,” said Merz.
Friedrich Merz between Wladimir (l) and Vitali Klitschko (r)
Source: dpa/Andreas Stein
He reiterated his support for arms sales to Ukraine. “I feel very much confirmed in the decision we made in the German Bundestag last week that we are helping this country,” said Merz. For this he experienced the gratitude of his interlocutors. He also supported EU accession status for Ukraine.
The Prime Minister of Ukraine Denis Schmyhal thanked Merz for the German support of Ukraine. “I stressed the importance of increased sanctions (against Russia) and support for Ukraine’s EU candidate status,” Schmyhal wrote on Twitter Tuesday of a meeting with Merz in Kyiv. He also thanked Ukraine for its military aid and support, he added. Schmyhal published a picture that shows him talking to the CDU leader at a table.
According to Merz, he traveled to Ukraine by train. At first it was unclear whether President Zelenskyj would receive him; that a head of state receives an opposition politician from abroad is by no means a matter of course in terms of protocol.
Friedrich Merz visits the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj in Kyiv
Source: Niels Starnick for BILD
The visit of the CDU leader had fueled the debate in Germany as to whether Chancellor Scholz should also travel to Ukraine. However, Scholz had made it clear on ZDF the evening before that he saw the unloading of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier through Ukraine as an obstacle to his own trip there.
Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck assumes that in the foreseeable future a member of the federal government will also travel to Ukraine. “The fact that we as a government are not there yet, as the Chancellor explained, is essentially due to the fact that the Federal President was uninvited,” said the Green politician on Tuesday on the sidelines of the cabinet meeting in Meseberg near Berlin. “But there will be a solution. We talk to each other all the time.”
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