Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is set to visit Berlin on Wednesday for talks with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, part of a diplomatic drive to end the war in Ukraine, Europe’s deadliest since World War Two.
Merz will receive Zelenskiy with military honours at the federal chancellery at noon (1000 GMT) for a visit focused on German support for Ukraine as well as efforts to achieve a ceasefire, a government spokesperson said in a statement.
Merz, a conservative who took office this month, has vowed to take more of a leadership role in ensuring support for Ukraine than his Social Democrat predecessor, Olaf Scholz.
He visited Ukraine with other European leaders within days of becoming chancellor and on Monday endorsed Ukraine’s right to launch long-range missile strikes into Russian territory – in contrast with Scholz’s cautious rhetoric on the issue.
Zelenskiy said he was grateful to Merz for coming to Kyiv, but there were “things that we could not discuss because we did not have a long one-on-one. And we agreed that the time will come when I will come to Berlin and we will talk about it.”
Washington and Kyiv are waiting for Russia’s draft of a memorandum on a peace accord, and Merz has dampened hopes for a quick resolution to the war. “Putin and Russia have at the moment no interest in a ceasefire, or a peace deal,” he said on Tuesday.
“This means, as a consequence, that Ukraine must continue to defend itself — and that we must intensify our efforts to enable Ukraine to do so.”
