It is good that the Chancellor went to Ukraine shortly after visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin.
She has never left any doubts about her support for Kiev in the Russian-induced conflict in eastern Ukraine.
It is not their fault that, despite everything, a solution is as far away as ever.
Your proposal for a further summit meeting in the “Normandy” format, that is to say with the involvement of the two conflicting parties as well as the French President, therefore seems like another opportunity to bid farewell to the world political stage. Putin, who withdraws into his spiritual wagon and only sees enemies all around, will not make any concessions. Rather, he will try to use the opportunity of the change of government in Germany and the approaching presidential election in France to gain further territorial gains in terms of political and propaganda purposes.
Nord Stream 2 is and will remain such a gain in terrain. It is astonishing how steadfastly Merkel is sticking to the project. In the meantime it is dawning even for some of those who always spoke of the “purely economic” project that geopolitics of the purest kind is being pursued. The pipeline makes it difficult to provide support to Ukraine, which the country so desperately needs. A support that will hopefully continue under Merkel's successor.