The meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy comes weeks after Scholz spoke with Vladimir Putin
Good morning and welcome to our coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine. The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, visited Ukraine for the first time in more than two and a half years on Monday.
The diplomatic trip comes just weeks after he was criticised by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for having a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Their call came at a time of widespread speculation about what the new administration of president-elect Donald Trump will mean for Ukraine.
Scholz, who is under pressure from many voters to cut aid to Kyiv, said that, in his meeting with Zelenskyy, he will announce further military supplies this month totalling €650m (£539m). Zelenskyy is set to push Nato to invite Ukraine to join the military alliance at a meeting in Brussels this week.
“Ukraine can rely on Germany – we say what we do and we do what we say,” the German chancellor said.
In other developments:
At least two people were killed and others injured in a Russian attack on Ternopil in western Ukraine, reports said on Monday morning. The city mayor, Serhiy Nadal, said a drone hit the fifth floor of an apartment building, starting a fire.
Ukraine’s air force said on Monday that Russia launched 110 drone attacks the previous night. The air force shot down 52 while 50 were “lost”, likely due to electronic warfare, it said. One remained in Ukrainian airspace and six headed toward Belarus and Russia.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that his country needed security guarantees from Nato and more weapons to defend itself before any talks with Russia. He called for “steps forward with Nato” and a “good number” of long-distance weapons for Ukraine to defend itself. “Only when we have all these items and we are strong, after that, we have to make the very important … agenda of meeting with one or another of the killers,” he said, adding that the EU and Nato should be involved in any negotiations. Zelenskyy made the comments after meeting the EU’s new foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, and the EU council chief, Antonio Costa, who were visiting Kyiv as a show of support on their first day in office.
Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, on Monday warned her Chinese counterpart that Beijing’s support for Russia would “impact” ties. “Foreign minister Baerbock emphasised that the increasing Chinese support for Russia’s war against Ukraine has an impact on our relations, as core German and European security interests are affected,” according to a German foreign ministry spokesperson.
