The schedule is tight when the small convoy drives through Kyiv with Friedrich Merz.

Head west past heavily armored checkpoints, next to the blown bridge across the Irpin River, over which thousands of people fled to safety from the advancing invading army under Russian fire.

More and more destroyed houses line the roadside.

New apartment blocks with shattered windows and meter-sized holes in the walls.

Burnt-out window sockets, next to them small side streets with old wooden houses, between which deep holes suddenly gape.

Alexander Haneke

Editor in Politics.

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It is the highest-ranking visit by a German politician to the Ukrainian capital since the beginning of the war on February 24, apart from EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The CDU leader and German opposition leader has chosen the Kiev suburb of Irpin as the start of his journey, where the fiercest fighting against the advancing Russian troops took place.

But the visit comes late.

The streets have long since been cleared, sidewalks swept.

In the gardens, the fruit trees are in bloom and contrast the ruins in a strange way.

The people return to the half-ruined Irpin and begin to get on with their lives again.

Merz had already announced his visit at the weekend, but then left the exact time open after security concerns from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA).

On Monday he left for Poland immediately after the meeting of the leadership bodies of the CDU and CSU.

From there, a chartered wagon with its own locomotive took it to the Ukrainian capital.

But the tight schedule for a day program with a return trip the same evening was designed without the reality of a country at war.

Train journeys in the Ukraine require a lot of patience, numerous train facilities have been destroyed by Russian rocket fire, and regular air raid alarms are another factor.

With some delay, Merz finally arrived in the late morning and had to streamline the program.

An astonishing crowd awaited the little entourage in front of the bullet-riddled cultural center in Irpin.

A neoclassical building in a delicate blue, in the middle of which a deep hole was torn.

Part of the old roof covering rattles menacingly in the wind.

Around a dozen camera tripods have been set up on the small forecourt.

Ukrainian journalists ask the German opposition leader for a brief statement.

In fact, German hesitation in delivering heavy weapons is being closely followed in Kyiv.

Everywhere people are approaching and asking why the Federal Republic is having such a hard time with its military aid in the fight against the Russian invasion.

Merz says he came here to see the destruction for himself, "full of sadness for the numerous victims that have occurred here, but also full of admiration for the army and for what the Ukrainian soldiers and soldiers have done." soldiers have done here".