German Chancellor Friedrich Merz arrived in Kyiv this morning on an unannounced visit, aiming to assure Ukraine of continued German support ahead of an expected difficult wartime winter.
According to German media, he is accompanied by Economy Minister Katherina Reiche and a business delegation.
“Today I will tell President (of Ukraine Volodymyr) Zelensky: ‘You can continue to count on our help.’ Our partnership is not a one-way street. German and Ukrainian companies are jointly developing technologies that benefit both countries,” Merz said before departing on his one-day visit.
Funds amounting to one billion euros, which have already been approved in the federal budget, are now being implemented as military aid.
This is Merz’s second visit to Ukraine as chancellor. He visited Kyiv in May last year, just four days after being sworn in as chancellor in the Bundestag—together with French President Emmanuel Macron, then British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and Polish government head Donald Tusk.
That was the first major joint diplomatic initiative by Europeans aimed at achieving peace in Ukraine, writes the German agency DPA. From Kyiv, the four heads of state and government then issued an ultimatum to Russia demanding an unconditional ceasefire, but that diplomatic initiative, as well as subsequent ones, have so far yielded no results.
This is the fourth trip by German chancellors to Kyiv since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022. Merz’s predecessor Olaf Scholz of the Social Democratic Party visited Ukraine twice during his three-and-a-half-year term.
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