Germany will hand over 650 million euros in new military aid, the chancellor announced this morning during a surprise visit to Kiev.
“Germany will remain Ukraine’s main support in Europe,” assured the head of the German government, who is campaigning for re-election.
Ahead of German parliamentary elections on February 23, Scholz is seen as the chancellor of peace and an advocate of restraint to avoid an escalation between the West and Russia.
His previous visit to Ukraine dates back to June 2022, when he visited the country together with French President Emmanuel Macron, a few months after the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022.
“For more than 1,000 days, Ukraine has been heroically defending itself against the merciless Russian war of aggression,” he underlined in a statement.
His visit aims to “express” his “solidarity” with Kiev, which can “count” on Berlin, he added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky assured yesterday, Sunday, that his country has, before possible negotiations with Russia.
“We have to find diplomatic solutions”
In an interview with the Kyodo News agency published today, Zelensky also states that Ukraine must find diplomatic solutions to recover some of its occupied territories.
He added that such steps could be considered “only when we know that we are strong enough”, he said speaking to the agency.
Zelensky added that US President-elect Donald Trump and his team were studying the Ukrainian “victory plan” and that he was waiting for further talks with them to explain “some things in more detail”, according to Kyodo News.
Also, the Ukrainian Air Force announced today that Russia launched 110 unmanned aerial vehicles overnight against Ukraine, an attack that killed one person and injured three in the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil, more than 350 kilometers southwest of Kiev.
Of those 110 drones, the Ukrainian Air Force shot down 52 and 50 were “lost,” possibly due to electronic warfare, the same source added.
One unmanned aircraft remained in Ukrainian airspace and six of the drones headed for Belarus and Russia, the Ukrainian Air Force added.
