Enlarge image
Foreign Minister Baerbock, Ukrainian counterpart Kuleba
Photo: Janine Schmitz/photothek.de / imago images/photothek
The photos of the fallen pass by seemingly endlessly.
Annalena Baerbock can see the wall with its many faces from the back seat of the black limousine as her convoy turns onto the access road to the Foreign Ministry in Kiev.
"Russian-Ukrainian War" reads the posters along the roadside, along with pictures of bombed-out cars and body bags.
Baerbock has now been German Foreign Minister for 41 days.
No topic has bothered her more than the Russian military deployment on the border with Ukraine, hardly anything as preoccupied as the question of being confronted with a war on European soil in the first few weeks of her term in office - like the first Green Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer once did in 1999 Kosovo.
Photos of the fallen
"The truth is that we are very worried today," says Baerbock.
"Since I took office, I have spoken about no other country as much as I have about the security of Ukraine."
The photos of the fallen on the way to the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs send a message: the war with Russia is already a bitter reality - the photos of the fallen range from 2014 to the present.
It is all the more astonishing how patiently the German Foreign Minister was received by her Ukrainian colleague Dmytro Kuleba.
But in the eye of the hurricane, as is well known, there is an eerie calm.
more on the subject
Foreign Minister Baerbock in Kiev: "Any renewed aggression would have a high price"
Threatening escalation with Russia: »If Ukraine fails, Europe fails« An interview from Kiev by Katja Lutska and Lina Verschwele
First Kiev, then Moscow - it is Baerbock's most important trip so far.
In the so-called Normandy format, Berlin, together with France, is claiming a mediating role between Ukraine and Russia.
The problem: Moscow shows little interest in a solution.
It will be interesting to see whether Baerbock will succeed in bringing Russia back to the Normandy format negotiating table.
Many fear an invasion.
While Vladimir Putin is massing troops on the border with Ukraine, he has given NATO an ultimatum for this week.
Among other things, the Western military alliance is supposed to rule out Ukraine's accession for all time.
The NATO allies will not do that, they agree on that.
The question is what Putin will do then.
In Berlin and Brussels it is hoped that the Russian President has not yet made a decision, but no one knows for sure.
Were the visits by senior Russian officials to Brussels last week a serious attempt at diplomacy?
Is the military muscle flexing on the border with Ukraine just background music?
Or does Russian diplomacy serve the sole purpose of preparing an invasion of Ukraine?
The Ukrainian government's expectations of the new government in Berlin were correspondingly high.
The Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin recently demanded that Germany support Ukraine with weapons.
"A strong foreign policy indicates that you have a clear stance," said Baerbock at the joint press conference with her counterpart Kuleba.
But then there is no new announcement, just the well-known position: Baerbock refuses to deliver weapons.
She doesn't change her stance depending on where she's performing, says the Green Minister, noting that Germany helped build a military hospital and took in injured Ukrainian soldiers in Germany.
However, this is of little help to Ukraine in the current situation.
The Ukrainian Foreign Minister politely thanks his guest.
It almost seems as if Kiev has come to terms with the fact that nothing more can be expected from Berlin.
Kuleba says he explained the Ukrainian government's arguments to his colleague.
The dialogue about it will continue, but: "We know where and what weapons we can get and how we can use them, exclusively for our defense."
The problem is that Moscow shows little interest in a solution.
After all, Baerbock speaks a refreshingly clear language.
You are with Russia “miles apart on many points”.
Regarding Moscow's call for Ukraine to reject NATO membership, she says: "No country has the right to dictate to other countries the direction in which it can go and what alliances it can enter into."
The government in Moscow refers to Baerbock as a "regime"; this word alone would not cross the lips of many SPD politicians.
And the Green politician also repeated her negative attitude with regard to the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline.
"I am very grateful to Annalena for her principled position," says host Kuleba.
opinion
The West in the Ukraine Crisis: Treating Putin as an Adversary – Not as a PartnerDer SPIEGEL editorial by Maximilian Popp
In the evening, Baerbock flies on to the Russian capital.
There she faces one of the toughest introductory appointments that international diplomacy has to offer on Tuesday.
A meeting with Sergei Lavrov, who has been at the forefront of Russian diplomacy for nearly 18 years, is considered a baptism of fire for any Western foreign minister.
Baerbock's predecessor Heiko Maas passed it, and the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell was shown by Lavrov.
It will be interesting to see how Baerbock performs.
And how Lavrov is dealing with the first woman to head the Foreign Office.