Zelensky landed in Berlin for talks with Scholz

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenksyj: Arrived in Berlin

Photo: Ukraine Presidency / ZUMA Wire / IMAGO

According to SPIEGEL information, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj has landed in Berlin. He will meet here in the late morning for talks with Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Both want to sign a bilateral security agreement between Germany and Ukraine. A press conference is planned for around midday.

Zelensky will then meet Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. In the evening, an onward journey to France is planned - there Zelensky wants to sign a second security agreement with French President Emmanuel Macron.

These agreements go back to a decision by NATO heads of state and government at their summit in Vilnius, Lithuania last July. The core is long-term security commitments to Ukraine, even beyond the war with Russia. Great Britain has already made a start with an agreement for a ten-year period. The other NATO states should now gradually follow suit with their commitments.

Even before his departure for Berlin, Zelensky had announced a new security architecture for his country. New agreements would be concluded with the partners to make Ukraine strong in the long term. "Ukraine has never had anything like this, although it has always been needed," said Zelenskyj in his evening video message on Thursday, which this time he recorded in a train compartment.

»We do the maximum«

According to his video message, Zelenskyy was briefed yesterday by the new army chief, Oleksandr Syrsky, and Defense Minister Rustem Umjerov about the situation on the front - especially in the city of Avdiivka, which has been under dispute for months, and in the east as a whole. "We are doing the maximum so that our soldiers have sufficient administrative and technological capabilities to save as many Ukrainian lives as possible," said Zelensky.

Zelensky will appear at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. Further bilateral meetings are planned there, for example with US Vice President Kamala Harris. The Ukrainian president opened the most important meeting of politicians and experts on security policy last year with a video address. Now he is taking part in person for the first time since the Russian invasion almost exactly two years ago.

Last May, Zelensky made his first visit to Germany since the Russian attack. In addition, last December, during a trip to Europe, he made a brief stopover in Wiesbaden to visit the US armed forces stationed there.

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