Baerbock in Kharkiv: The trip was initially kept secret.
Image: dpa
Kharkiv is a “symbol of the absolute madness of the Russian war of aggression,” said Annalena Baerbock during a visit to the city. She promised Kyiv continued support – including arms deliveries.
An Tuesday, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) pledged German solidarity and support during a visit to the war-torn city of Kharkiv in Ukraine. This included further arms deliveries, which Ukraine needed to free its fellow citizens “who are still suffering from the terror of the Russian occupation”. This also includes the winter aid that has been provided. “Generators and transformers, fuel and blankets are now saving lives on site,” she said in Kharkiv, according to the Foreign Office. In addition, according to the dpa news agency, Baerbock has promised the country 40 million euros for mine clearance and better internet coverage.
Baerbock is the first German cabinet member to visit embattled eastern Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February 2022. She was accompanied in the city by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Oleksii Makeiev.
The visit was kept secret for security reasons. According to agency reports, she had traveled by train via Poland and Kyiv. Accordingly, the minister first visited a destroyed substation at the train station and then met patients and their parents in a children’s hospital. In the heavily damaged Saltivka district, she visited, among other things, the heating room of a school. “This city is a symbol of the absolute insanity of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine and the endless suffering that people, especially here in the east of the country, face every day,” she said.
