German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier received Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at Bellevue Palace on Sunday morning. Zelensky visited Berlin for the first time since the beginning of the Russian invasion of his homeland. The meeting of the two presidents began in a friendly atmosphere. At the beginning of the war, Steinmeier had found it difficult to reach a good understanding with his colleague. A first attempt to visit Kiev was answered with an invitation, but the visit took place in October last year.
Peter Carstens
Political correspondent in Berlin
- Follow I follow
In the past year, Steinmeier had repeatedly announced his rejection of the previous Russia policy of the German governments, Gerhard Schröder (SPD) and Angela Merkel (CDU), in which Steinmeier had worked in leading offices. After Steinmeier's welcome, Zelensky first signed the guest book, followed by a conversation with Steinmeier. It was expected that Zelensky would then go to the Chancellery, a few hundred meters away.
The presence of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Berlin was announced early Sunday morning by the deep roar of helicopters over the city. Zelensky, who was received with military honors in Rome on Saturday, had already arrived in Germany during the night. Also for security reasons, diplomacy had chosen the format of "silent arrival", in which the guest first arrives at night without much accompaniment and is then officially welcomed in the morning. His aircraft was accompanied by Eurofighters of the German Air Force – a quite common procedure and part of the honor for state visitors, but in this case certainly also part of the security precautions to protect the Ukrainian president.
After the Berlin police had initially carelessly trumpeted out the upcoming visit, they were now particularly anxious not to endanger the safety of the guest unnecessarily. In addition to the already high abstract threat, Russia's leadership had once again directly threatened the Ukrainian head of state with his assassination after a dubious incident at the Kremlin in Moscow. There was a general flight ban over the capital at the weekend.
During the night, it was Zelensky himself who announced his arrival. Around one o'clock he tweeted: "Already in Berlin. Weapons. Strong package. Anti-aircraft. Reconstruction. EU. NATO. Safety." Among other things, the president was alluding to another large shipment of heavy weapons to defend the country against the Russian aggressors. It was announced on Saturday by the Ministry of Defense and includes additional military equipment worth more than two and a half billion euros.
Some of the announced line items were already known. Last week, Inspector General Carsten Breuer visited Kyiv and was accompanied by the main coordinator of military support, Brigadier General Christian Freuding. While Freuding has already been to Ukraine several times, Breuer, the leading military officer of the Bundeswehr, traveled to Kyiv for the first time.
The Ukrainian president had not spent the night in one of the usual Berlin hotels, but in a special place, probably the Ministry of Defense. The topics of the Berlin talks with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) were also mentioned with his tweet. Shortly after eight o'clock, everything in the government district was already largely cordoned off, Zelensky himself moved around the city by helicopter. After meeting with Steinmeier and Scholz, Zelensky was expected to travel on to Aachen to receive the prestigious Charlemagne Prize in person.