Baerbock for the second time since the beginning of the war in Kyiv – “More than frightening”
Foreign Minister Baerbock is traveling to Kyiv for the second time
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has arrived in Kyiv for a second visit. Among other things, it should be about further arms deliveries. WELT reporter Max Hermes from Zaporizhia reports on the current developments.
Annalena Baerbock traveled to Kyiv. She wanted to show that Germany was supporting Ukraine as long as “it was necessary,” said the Foreign Minister upon her arrival. But the trip is also a domestic political signal – the Germans should not show any signs of war-weariness.
AForeign Minister Annalena Baerbock has traveled to Kyiv again. 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 it can sap our energy to defend ourselves against this brutal attack on the values of all of us.”
Annalena Baerbock comes with her companions to the train in Kyiv
Source: dpa/Michael Fischer
This calculation by Putin should not and will not work out. “Because all of Europe knows that Ukraine is defending our peace order.”
With a special train to the Ukraine
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.
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 visiting a German-sponsored demining project near Kyiv
Source: dpa/Michael Fischer
On site, the Federal Foreign Minister was shocked by the destruction, but also by the mass of mines in the country. “What I see here is more than frightening,” she said during a visit to deminers in a Kiev suburb. It is clear that “not only anti-tank mines were deliberately laid here, but also anti-personnel mines, i.e. mines were used by the Russian army in a targeted manner to kill civilians”. It is therefore important that Ukraine not only receives military aid, but also civil defense support.
Ukrainians want tanks
Their Ukrainian interlocutors meanwhile emphasized their demands 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.