Surprise ! German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday, his spokeswoman said. At the same time, an anti-aircraft siren sounded in the sky of kyiv. A week ago, the head of state’s planned visit to kyiv was canceled for security reasons, which sparked criticism from the conservative opposition but also from the liberals, members of the government coalition. This cancellation came as the Ukrainian capital was bombarded for the first time in months by Russian missiles and kamikaze drones which mainly targeted energy infrastructure and left a dozen dead.
For his first visit to Ukraine since the invasion of this country by Russian troops, the German president said he was “rejoicing at his meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky in kyiv and with the population in the north of the country” where he wants ” get an idea of their life in the middle of the war”, according to a text sent by the spokesperson, Cerstin Gammelin. Before meeting the Ukrainian president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier will go to the small town of Korioukivka, in the north of the country near the Belarusian border, which had been occupied by Russian troops. This now liberated city must face the cold, while its infrastructure is destroyed. The German president will provide aid to this municipality for its energy infrastructure.
“You can count on Germany! »
“My message to Ukrainians: you can count on Germany! We will continue to support Ukraine: militarily, politically, financially and humanitarianly,” he said in kyiv. “Together with the President of Ukraine, I will be sponsoring the German-Ukrainian twinning network today. The more twinning there is, the easier it will be to get through the winter and build the long-term European future together,” he added.
In April, Ukraine and Germany came close to a diplomatic incident when a proposal to visit Frank-Walter Steinmeier was rejected by kyiv, which declared him persona non grata by the executive of Volodymyr Zelensky. Twice Minister of Foreign Affairs to Angela Merkel, this social democrat has long supported a policy of relaxation with Russia, before making his mea culpa by acknowledging his mistakes. Since that incident, things had calmed down. The German president spoke on the phone with his Polish counterpart and received Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Chmygal in September during the latter’s visit to Berlin.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier is the latest German official to visit Ukraine which has been visited by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (twice) and Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht.