Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany paid a shock go to to Ukraine on Monday, his first in additional than two years, to reaffirm his nation’s assist amid mounting concern in Kyiv that the West might reduce navy support and push for a negotiated settlement with Russia.
Mr. Scholz’s journey got here two weeks after he held a cellphone name with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to debate potential paths to finish the conflict. Ukrainian officers denounced that outreach, saying that it broke Mr. Putin’s diplomatic isolation from the West and bolstered Moscow’s place forward of attainable peace talks.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine was significantly crucial, warning that Mr. Scholz’s cellphone name risked opening “a Pandora’s field” by encouraging extra leaders to have interaction with Mr. Putin, finally legitimizing the Russian president’s place.
Mr. Scholz’s go to to Kyiv on Monday appeared, a minimum of partially, aimed toward easing these tensions, and he introduced that his nation would ship an extra $680 million of navy tools to Ukraine by the yr’s finish. “Germany will stay Ukraine’s strongest supporter in Europe,” Mr. Scholz stated in a social media put up after his arrival on an in a single day practice.
The journey got here amid rising concern in Kyiv that the incoming Trump administration might lower off support, shifting the monetary burden of Ukraine’s conflict effort onto Europe. In latest weeks, high European officers have convened to strategize maintain Ukraine’s protection ought to U.S. assist waver, a problem made extra pressing by Russian forces advancing at their quickest tempo on the battlefield in two years.
Berlin is anticipated to be on the forefront of any new effort. With greater than $15 billion allotted in navy, monetary and humanitarian support to this point, it has been Ukraine’s high European backer because the conflict started in 2022, in line with a rating by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a suppose tank in Germany.
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