The state government wants to help the Ukrainians in Hesse quickly and specifically.

This was agreed in a meeting at which Prime Minister Volker Bouffier (CDU), members of the cabinet and the chairmen of the parliamentary groups met with the Consul General of Ukraine, Vadym Kostiuk in the State Chancellery on Thursday.

Bouffier then reported that many Ukrainians were stranded at Frankfurt Airport because of the closed airspace over their country.

You will be offered accommodation and unbureaucratic help.

The people have no telephone connection to their home country and no money.

Remedial action will also be taken in this regard.

Ewald Hetrodt

Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung in Wiesbaden.

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According to Bouffier, in coordination with the Consulate General in Frankfurt, they also want to give “immediate help” to the approximately 10,000 Ukrainians living in Hesse.

But he also called on all Hessians with appropriate contacts to do so.

For Ukraine, the Prime Minister announced medical aid and the delivery of food.

Bouffier explained that he does not expect a large influx of refugees.

But the Minister of the Interior made sure that Hesse was prepared.

With the words "Today we are all Ukrainians", state parliament president Boris Rhein (CDU) welcomed Kostiuk as a "dear friend" before the appointment in the state chancellery in the plenary hall of the state parliament.

"The war is here," stated the guest.

"We very much hope for more defensive weapons," he said, without explicitly mentioning the fact that Germany is not willing to provide this form of help.

It's about saving the country from destruction, says Kostiuk.

"You can't attack with anti-aircraft missiles." When asked about this, Bouffier said that he could understand the Ukrainians' desire very well.

However, it is “not my job at this hour to interpret the basic position of the federal government”.

Financial support and humanitarian aid

Kostiuk also called for sanctions to be "painful enough" to prevent the aggressor from completely destroying his country.

Only with sanctions will the Russian population be made clear "what is happening".

Russia must be cut off from international financial flows and isolated from different political formats.

This applies “from the United Nations to town twinning”.

Kostiuk also asked for financial support and humanitarian assistance.

The world knows only too well from experience what that means.

The Consul General talked about a young woman from his homeland who was studying German in Frankfurt.

Her parents lived twenty kilometers from the border.

This morning they could not be reached by phone for their daughter.

Kostiuk wanted his hosts to have "strong German without the subjunctive and without modal words".

For this, the speaker only received no applause from the left.

After all, the parliamentary group leader Jan Schalauske had "unmistakably condemned" the attack when the MPs debated it in the morning.

Bouffier spoke of a day of shame that would change world politics.

The head of the SPD parliamentary group, Günter Rudolph, called for "a resolute response from the world community".

Anyone who believes in democracy, freedom and the right of nations to self-determination is stunned.

"Putin is an aggressor who is using tanks to crush international law." The war must be stopped before it becomes a conflagration, demanded Rudolph.

"The aggressor's name is undoubtedly Putin," said Mathias Wagner, leader of the Greens.

Everyone felt "that the war that started today posed dangers for all of Europe, indeed for the entire world order." René Rock, chairwoman of the FDP parliamentary group, recalled the experiences of the Cold War, when Hesse was on the border of the Iron Curtain .

"NATO is our life insurance." For the AfD parliamentary group, MP Erich Heidkamp explained that it now shows "what criminals can do to a people".

As a sign of solidarity, the Ukrainian flag has been flying in front of both the state parliament and the state chancellery since Thursday.