German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier has arrived in Kyiv on his first visit to Ukraine since the Russian invasion began nine months ago.
On setting foot in the Ukrainian capital, Mr Steinmeier said his trip was a “signal of solidarity” amid a renewed Russian bombing campaign and fears that Moscow seeks to further escalate the war.
He said: “My message to the people of Ukraine is: You can rely on Germany!”
Besides military support, Mr Steinmeier said, his trip would focus on helping to repair destroyed infrastructure, such as power grids, water pipes and heating systems, as quickly as possible before winter arrives.
The German president, whose position is largely ceremonial, made it to Ukraine on his third try.
In April, he was planning to visit the country with his Polish and Baltic counterparts but said his presence “apparently... wasn’t wanted in Kyiv”, due to his proximity to Russia in his time as Germany’s foreign minister.
A report in German tabloid Bild in April quoted a Ukrainian diplomat as saying: “We all know about Steinmeier’s close ties to Russia... he is currently not welcome in Kyiv.”
Days earlier, Mr Steinmeier admitted that Germany was too close to Moscow when he was in charge of diplomatic relations in Angela Merkel’s government. He said Berlin ignored repeated warnings from allies over the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
“My assessment was that Vladimir Putin would not accept the complete economic, political and moral ruin of his country for his imperial mania – there, like others, I was wrong,” he said.
Mr Steinmeier planned to visit Kyiv last Thursday but stayed away after attacks on the capital.
He finally arrived on Tuesday as Germany hosted a conference on Ukrainian reconstruction, after weeks of Russian air strikes targeting vital infrastructure across the war-torn country.
Volodymyr Zelensky, appearing in Berlin via video link, said Russian rockets and Iran-made drones had destroyed more than one-third of his country’s energy sector.
He also said Ukraine had yet to receive “a single cent” towards a fast recovery plan worth a total $17bn (£15bn), $3.4bn of which Kyiv said it needs within months.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz said the conference aimed to create “a Marshall Plan for the 21st century,” adding: The commitment to Ukraine as an EU member is one of the most consequential geopolitical decisions of our time.”
