Germany's Foreign Minister receives award in Ukraine and reveals she wanted to visit Kharkiv – photo

Annalena Baerbock, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany, has had to cancel her visit to the city of Kharkiv planned within her trip to Ukraine on 21 May due to the security situation.

Source: Baerbock in a conversation with journalists in Kyiv, as reported by European Pravda with reference to Tagesspiegel

Details: Due to Russian attacks and for security reasons, Baerbock had to cancel her visit to Kharkiv, planned for 21 May. She already visited the city in January 2023 and wanted to learn more about the situation of the civilian population.

Nonetheless, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, decorated Baerbock with the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise For Merit during their meeting. The corresponding decree was signed at the beginning of the year.

Baerbock and Zelenskyy

Photo: Imago/Thomas Trutschel

During Baerbock’s visit to one of the largest power plants of Ukraine (it was not specified which) with Ukraine’s Minister of Energy Herman Halushchenko, Baerbock accused Vladimir Putin of purposeful terror against Ukraine’s infrastructure and civilians.

Baerbock repeated her call upon the international partners of Ukraine to supply Kyiv with more air defence systems to "not only protect big cities but also the infrastructure".

Background:

• This is Annalena Baerbock’s seventh visit to Ukraine since the Russian full-scale invasion. She had urged the international community to strengthen its support for Ukraine in the air defence sector ahead of the visit.

• At the 22nd meeting of the Contact Group for Ukraine’s Defence (Ramstein format), several states expressed their support for Germany’s initiative of looking for air defence means for Kyiv.

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