Angela Merkel in Ukraine this Sunday to reaffirm her support for Kiev
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (here, in Berlin, June 18, 2019) will receive German Chancellor Angela Merkel this Sunday, August 22, 2021.
ASSOCIATED PRESS - Michael Sohn
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
After Russia on Friday August 20, Angela Merkel is in Ukraine this Sunday August 22.
A visit which aims to reaffirm its support for Kiev, while the German Chancellor will soon leave her post.
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For Kiev as for Berlin, the priority is to achieve an appeasement in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
Since Moscow's annexation of Crimea in 2014, armed clashes have claimed more than 13,000 lives.
And after a rather respected truce last year,
tensions between Kiev and Moscow
resumed in the spring, in particular because of the
deployment
of tens of thousands of Russian soldiers at the Ukrainian borders.
Kiev is therefore seeking the support of its allies and will also receive the Polish, Latvian and Lithuanian leaders the day after Angela Merkel's visit.
The German Chancellor has always presented herself as the main mediator and she will certainly try to use this visit to reaffirm this role of intermediary.
Another essential file, that of Nord Stream 2. The
agreement
reached last month between Berlin and Washington around this gas pipeline, supposed to link Europe to Russia bypassing Ukraine, was not likely to reassure Kiev. , quite the contrary.
Angela Merkel, should thus try to prove to her ally that he was not sacrificed, and that there will be a continuity in German foreign policy after her, even if her prospective successor, Armin Laschet is rather presented as pro -Russian.
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See also: On a farewell visit to Moscow, Merkel calls for the release of Navalny
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Germany
Angela Merkel
Ukraine
Diplomacy
Volodymyr Zelensky