Status: 07/25/2022 10:18 a.m
Federal Interior Minister Faeser and Social Affairs Minister Heil have arrived in Ukraine. First you visit the destroyed city of Irpin, later the capital Kyiv. Reconstruction should be the focus of talks with government representatives.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and Social Affairs Minister Hubertus Heil have arrived in Ukraine for their first visit. They traveled by night train from Poland. To start their trip, the SPD politicians want to visit the war-ravaged city of Irpin in the morning. The suburb of the capital, about 30 kilometers north-west of Kyiv, resembles a ghost town. Around 50,000 people lived here before the start of the Russian war of aggression. As in the nearby suburb of Bucha, war crimes are said to have been committed by Russian occupiers in Irpin.
Delivery of relief supplies planned
Meetings are planned with Ukrainian politicians, including Faeser’s counterpart Denys Monastyrskyj, head of civil protection Serhij Kruk, Deputy Prime Minister and Economics Minister Julia Swyrydenko, Social Affairs Minister Oxana Zholnowych and Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko. Relief supplies, including power generators and a drone for aerial reconnaissance, are also to be handed over.
Despite the ongoing fighting in parts of Ukraine, the talks will focus in particular on reconstruction issues. Specifically, for example, how destroyed police stations, fire brigades, rescue services and civil protection in the country can be improved again. At the meeting of Faeser and Monastyrskyj, complex cyber security, arms smuggling, mine clearance and the forensic investigation of war crimes should also be discussed.
The talks between Heil and Swyrdenko are about the situation of the Ukrainian refugees – about their status and prospects in Germany, but also about their options for returning to Ukraine.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, more than 915,000 war refugees have been registered in Germany’s central register of foreigners. According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, these include 890,605 Ukrainian nationals (as of July 19). How many of the people are currently still in Germany is unclear. A significant number may have already traveled to other countries or returned to Ukraine.