Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Berlin, Germany, in the middle of the night on the 14th and met President Frank-Walter Steinmeier during the day.
Afterwards, he will meet with Prime Minister Olaf Scholz and leave for the western city of Aachen to receive the ‘International Charlemagne Award’.
President Zelensky visited Italy the previous day and met with Prime Minister Giorza Meloni in Rome, where he was promised active support for Ukraine. He visited the Vatican City to meet with Pope Francis.
Francis emphasized the hardships of the Ukrainian people caused by the war and appealed for an end to the war.
Italy’s far-right Prime Minister Meloni, who has a far-right stance on immigration, has been actively supporting Ukraine since the general elections in late September, and after taking office, he has consistently supported Ukraine, scolding the coalition’s Alliance Party and the Forza Italia Party for their pro-Putin tendencies.
President Zelensky arrived in Berlin from Italy in a German government aircraft, escorted by Air Force fighters. Chancellor Scholz of the Social Democratic Party, which leads the German coalition government, was criticized for showing a passive attitude to support Ukraine after the Russian invasion last year.
However, Germany has been taking more firm and active steps to support Ukraine since the end of last year, such as announcing a new military aid package worth 3 billion dollars the day before Zelensky’s visit. Following the light combat armored vehicle Marder, Ukraine allowed support for the Leopard 2 tank, which Ukraine repeatedly requested, in December, and provided four batteries almost 10 months after promising the new air defense system IRIS-T.
Germany’s military aid to Ukraine was only $5 billion and a half of Britain’s as of January this year, but if this new package is included, it will be $6 billion, similar to the UK, which is second only to the US in military aid. Prime Minister Scholz visited Ukraine’s Kyiv with the heads of France and Italy in June last year, and President Steinmeier, who was initially boycotted by Ukraine, met with President Zelensky in Kyiv in October.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius repeatedly declared on the 13th that “We will provide the maximum support to Ukraine until (Ukraine) is no longer needed.”
The International Charlemagne Prize is an award established by a German provincial city, but international figures who took the lead in integrating the world and Europe were selected as winners, and President Zelensky is awarded along with the Ukrainian people. Previous winners have included Winston Churchill, Pope Francis, Angela Merkel and Bill Clinton.
Meanwhile, President Zelensky met German Chancellor Scholz at the Elysee Palace during his visit to Paris, France on February 8, who was having a meeting with President Macron.
Previously, on the 3rd of this month, he visited Helsinki, Finland, where he attended the summit of five Nordic countries, and on the 4th, he went to The Hague, the Netherlands, to visit the International Criminal Court (ICC). He then visited Italy on the 13th and Germany on the 14th.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.