Status: 03/31/2022 8:00 p.m
One was connected via video, the other spoke personally with Economics Minister Habeck in Berlin: The Klitschko brothers have asked Germany for help again. An urgent appeal was made to German industry.
The mayor of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, has urged German companies to stop doing business with Russia. “Every euro and every cent that the Russian Federation receives is not invested in its economy or in its people, but in its army,” Klitschko said in a speech that was broadcast live to the Hanover council meeting. “This is bloody money.”
The result is destroyed cities in Ukraine. Ukrainian women and children paid the price of blood. Klitschko used drastic words to describe the destruction in the Kiev suburbs with numerous fatalities and people who had become homeless as a result of the war. He also asked for more weapons for defense. “We are very happy about the support from Germany, but it is not enough.”
Russian propaganda a kind of “brainwashing”
“The most important weapon in this war are not rockets, tanks or machine guns,” Klitschko emphasized. “The most important weapon is the media.” Through state propaganda and the suppression of press freedom, the Russian government is trying to persuade people that Russia wants to rid Ukraine of nationalists. It is lies and a form of brainwashing.
Many Ukrainians who are now fighting Russia have Russian as their mother tongue, the mayor of Kiev said. “How can I hate Russia? In my body, half my blood is Russian blood.”
Hanover’s Lord Mayor Belit Onay had invited Klitschko to the speech. Hanover is the leading city of the organization “Mayors for Peace” (“Mayors for Peace”) in Germany, which includes more than 8000 cities and municipalities from 163 countries worldwide, including 700 from Germany.
Klitschko’s brother Wladimir meets German politicians
While Vitali Klitschko only spoke virtually to his German audience, his brother Wladimir met Vice Chancellor and Economics Minister Robert Habeck in Berlin. It should be about further economic, humanitarian and military aid for Ukraine, it said. The delegation from Kyiv also included the special representative of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry for sanctions policy, Oleksiy Makjeev, and MP Halyna Janchenko.
A ministry spokeswoman confirmed the meeting of the delegation around former world boxing champion Klitschko with Habeck, but gave no further details on the content of the talks. Later, Klitschko was also to meet Chancellor Wolfgang Schmidt.
In the evening, Klitschko emphasized on the “Bild TV” channel that his country needed financial and humanitarian aid. The economy is devastated and in some cities there is no food, water or medical care. And: “We need weapons,” said Klitschko. Decisions about this would have to be made quickly. “We do not have time”