In Kiev, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) repeatedly emphasized Germany's outstanding support for the beleaguered Ukraine.

He calls Russia's military troop movements near the Ukrainian border "incomprehensible to us" and then keeps coming back to the outstanding financial support that Germany has been giving Ukraine since 2014, i.e. since the beginning of Russia's policy of aggression.

No other country has helped Ukraine "so vigorously," says Scholz.

Johannes Leithauser

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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He repeated the total of more than two billion dollars in financial aid that had flowed from Germany to Kiev and added the announcement that 150 million from an existing loan would be allocated more quickly than planned, and another 150 million with a new loan would be available placed.

With a view to the current Russian threat, which Kiev can hardly counter with credit funds, Scholz leaves it with the well-known references that the Federal Republic has helped to train Ukrainian officers, that Ukrainian wounded are being cared for in German hospitals and that a complete field hospital was only recently opened handed over to Ukraine.

And when asked whether the requested delivery of military equipment was possible beyond the German refusal to support Ukraine with "lethal weapons", the Chancellor replies gruffly: Germany is examining every request, and once the examination is complete, "then it can something to say about that."

Kiev wants to stay in NATO

However, Scholz can hardly comment on the acute issue that will electrify Kiev on Monday.

It's about comments by the Ukrainian ambassador in London, who initially suggested that Kiev could postpone its desire for NATO membership.

The diplomat corrected himself immediately, but in Moscow his words were commented on benevolently, in Kiev they were put into perspective.

Ukraine's desire to become a member of NATO remains, says President Volodymyr Zelenskyj in the presence of his German guest.

Maybe it's just a dream, he adds.

In any case, he asks for patience – nobody knows how long it will take for this wish to become a reality.

And then makes it clear once again: Kiev is not sending out the message that NATO membership is no longer aspired to.

Scholz has little left in Kiev other than Germany's determination to reassure the EU, indeed the West as a whole, that there will be far-reaching economic, political and geostrategic consequences if Putin violates Ukraine's territorial integrity.

Once again he does not name the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, but again indicates that this new pipeline would be affected by the consequences.

Germany is ready for "very far-reaching and effective sanctions," says the chancellor, and if Russia acts accordingly, "then we know what needs to be done."

Scholz's visits to Kiev and Moscow were deliberately kept separate by the Berlin Chancellery and each was designed as a separate trip.

Sub-messages that could have been gleaned from accompanying circumstances should be avoided – for example, whether the chancellor would have preferred to stay in Kiev or in Moscow, whether the trip to Moscow via Kiev might have diminished the Russian stay.