Baerbock after Selenskyj meeting: "We will be there when this war is over"
Created: 05/11/2022, 05:40
By: Patrick Mayer, Bettina Menzel
Annalena Baerbock is in Ukraine: the foreign minister gives an emotional speech in Bucha and meets Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv.
The news ticker for her state visit.
As the first German government representative:
Annalena Baerbock (Greens) travels to Ukraine in the middle of the war
.
The Federal Foreign Minister is getting an idea of the situation in
Bucha
and is holding talks in
Kiev
.
After her visit to Butscha, Baerbock gives an emotional speech at the site of the
alleged war crimes
.
This
news ticker about Baerbock's visit to Ukraine
is updated regularly.
Update from May 10, 8:43 p.m .:
After her meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock made a brief statement on Twitter.
"We will also be there when this war is over, when Vladimir Putin has missed his target, when Ukraine shapes its future in freedom." She also thanked the Ukrainian President for the warm welcome in Kyiv.
Foreign Minister Baerbock meets Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko
Update from May 10, 8:37 p.m .:
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock promised Ukraine further support in the military sector and in reconstruction at a meeting with Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
"If this brutal advance could not be pushed back, then this city would have looked different," said the Green politician on Tuesday at the meeting with Klitschko, with a view to the Russian advance on the Ukrainian capital.
Former world boxing champion Klitschko thanked Baerbock for her commitment and her visit during the war.
Everything must be done to stop the "senseless war".
Baerbock invites Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba to G7 foreign ministers meeting
Update from May 10, 6:47 p.m.:
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has invited her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba to the meeting of foreign ministers of the G7 group of leading democratic industrial nations in Schleswig-Holstein.
She is pleased that Kuleba has accepted her invitation, said the Green politician on Tuesday, according to a spokesman, during her visit to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
The G7 foreign ministers will meet in Weißenhäuser Strand on the Baltic Sea from May 12 to 14.
The focus of the deliberations is likely to be the situation in Ukraine and further action against Russia.
The G7 round, in which Germany currently chairs, includes the Federal Republic of Germany, the NATO states USA, Canada, France, Great Britain and Italy as well as Japan.
Meeting of Zelenskyj and Baerbock in Kyiv: Ukrainian President thanks Germany for solidarity
Update from May 10, 5:15 p.m .:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj received Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) in Kiev and thanked her for supporting the country in the war against Russia.
It is of great value for the country that Germany shows solidarity with the Ukrainian people, said Zelenskyj on Tuesday, according to a video published by the presidential administration.
Baerbock was accompanied by her Dutch colleague Wopke Hoekstra, who expressed dismay at the destruction caused by Russia's war of aggression, including in the suburbs of the capital Kyiv.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomes German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Alliance 90/Greens, ) May 10 in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
© picture alliance/dpa/photothek.de |
Florian Gaertner
Baerbock also informed Selenskyj that in a few days Ukrainian soldiers would start training on the modern Panzerhaubitze 2000, which Germany and the Netherlands would deliver to Ukraine.
Further details from the conversation between Baerbock and Selenskyj were not initially known.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock meets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Update from May 10, 4:30 p.m .:
The German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (The Greens) met the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj in the afternoon during her visit to Kiev.
A video of the meeting was shared on Zelenskyy's official Instagram account.
The post read: "A meaningful meeting with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra.
The support from their countries is important and valuable to us.
Thank you for showing solidarity with the Ukrainian people today.” Nothing is known about the content of the talks, and there has not yet been an official press statement.
Baerbock in Ukraine: Ampel Foreign Minister announces reopening of the German embassy
Update from May 10, 2:35 p.m .:
During a visit to Ukraine, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced the reopening of the German embassy in the capital Kiev, which was closed in mid-February, this Tuesday.
The work of the embassy will resume with minimal presence, said the Green politician in a joint press conference with her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
The embassy will initially have limited operations.
Germany is one of the last Western countries to resume embassy operations in the Ukrainian capital with around 2.8 million inhabitants.
Baerbock in Ukraine: Traffic light foreign minister is deeply affected during the speech in Bucha
Update from May 10, 12:55 p.m .:
Annalena Baerbock (The Greens) gave an emotional press conference during her trip to Ukraine in the Butscha church.
In the small town north-west of the metropolis of Kyiv, Russian troops are said to have committed a number of alleged war crimes before their withdrawal.
IPPEN.MEDIA co-
wrote Baerbock's speech:
“We are in a place and in a church that is actually incredibly representative of hope and future. If you look at this building. Looking through the windows, the sun shining in that day. Then you think you are in a normal church. And at the same time it is a place where the worst crimes imaginable have not only become visible, but have happened here.”
Baerbock in Ukraine: Ampel Foreign Minister gives an emotional speech in the middle of Bucha
"What I just heard here, from those who could at least give these people the last dignity, which is to bury them. To transport what is her greatest wish: to make it clear to the world what kind of crimes have happened, how great the pain is. And nobody can take away this pain, the pain of fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, friends, neighbors and work colleagues. But we can ensure justice. And that's why I'm here today with the Attorney General, who is investigating these crimes and collecting evidence for her country. We support this war crime investigation as an international community. We owe it to the victims to ensure that the perpetrators are held accountable.”
“And these victims, you can feel that so strongly here, we could be these victims. Butscha is a suburb of Kyiv, it's like Potsdam before Berlin. You see playgrounds, you see supermarkets, you see people going to work. And then you see the worst traces of crime right next to it. A bomb that hit right in the supermarket. You see pictures of people who just did what every human being does. Getting up in the morning, going shopping and being murdered in cold blood. How a mother tried to escape with her two children and was shot dead. And we owe it to these victims not only to commemorate them, but to hold the perpetrators accountable and hold them accountable. And that's what we will do as an international community. This is the promise
With protective vest and escort: Annalena Baerbock (middle) in Butscha near Kyiv.
© Andreas Stein/dpa
Baerbock in Ukraine: Ampel Foreign Minister speaks to auxiliary workers in Butscha
Update from May 10, 11:40 a.m .:
The first photos from Butscha show Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (The Greens) with a heavily armed escort.
The 41-year-old, who traveled to Ukraine as the first traffic light representative after the outbreak of war, wears a bulletproof protective vest.
The Green politician lit candles in a small church.
More than 400 bodies were found in Bucha after Russian troops withdrew from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
The Russian soldiers who advanced here and then had to withdraw defeated are accused of numerous alleged war crimes against civilians.
Baerbock spoke in the morning with residents of the small town northwest of Kyiv and with helpers who recovered and identified the bodies.
"You see playgrounds, you see supermarkets, you see people going to work," explained Baerbock in a first press statement.
And next door you can see the destruction of the war.
A grenade hit the supermarket.
"People who got up and wanted to go to work were murdered in cold blood," says Baerbock and demands "that we not only commemorate, but that we call the perpetrators to account.
We will do that as an international community.”
Baerbock in Kyiv: Germany is one of the last western countries to reopen the embassy
Update from May 10, 11:20 a.m .:
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is the first German cabinet member to travel to the capital Kiev since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
The Greens politician first got an idea of the situation in the Butscha suburb on Tuesday.
More than 400 bodies were found there after the Russian troops withdrew - some with their hands tied behind their backs.
Baerbock was received by an employee of the German embassy at his home.
The Minister was accompanied by the Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova.
In the afternoon, among other things, a conversation between Baerbock and her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba was planned.
The minister also wanted to reopen the German embassy in Kyiv, which had been closed since mid-February.
The last embassy employees sent to Poland left on February 25 and continued to work partly from there and partly from Berlin.
Germany is one of the last western countries to announce the reopening of its embassy in Kyiv.
Baerbock in Bucha and Kyiv: Federal Foreign Minister Baerbock spoke to residents
Update from May 10, 11:05 a.m .:
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) arrived in Ukraine on Tuesday for a visit.
Baerbock arrived in the city of Bucha near Kyiv in the morning, a journalist from the AFP news agency reported.
The Foreign Minister spoke to residents of the city, which has become synonymous with suspected war crimes by Russian forces in Ukraine.
Baerbock's visit to Ukraine is the first by a member of the federal government since Russia's war of aggression began on February 24.
The exact date of their trip had been kept secret.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) announced last week that Baerbock would travel to Ukraine “soon”.
The serious irritation caused by the government in Kyiv disinviting Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier had previously been cleared up in a telephone conversation between Steinmeier and the Ukrainian head of state, Volodymyr Zelensky.
At the junkyard: Russian wheeled tanks after the retreat from Bucha near Kyiv.
© IMAGO / Ukrinform
Baerbock in Bucha and Kyiv: Federal Foreign Minister travels to Ukraine
First report from May 10th:
Kiev – Now also Annalena Baerbock.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier officially wanted to be the first to go to Ukraine.
But Kyiv signaled to the SPD politician: undesirable.
If so, then Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD).
However, he described Steinmeier's invitation as an "obstacle", which earned him the accusation of "offended liverwurst" (quote from Ukraine Ambassador Andriy Melnyk).
Steinmeier and the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj then cleared up the irritations in a telephone call, Selenskyj invited Steinmeier again.
Shortly thereafter, the second highest German state representative, Bundestag President Bärbel Bas, was in Kyiv to commemorate the victims of the Second World War unleashed by Nazi Germany.
Annalena Baerbock (Greens) in the Ukraine-Russia war: Federal Foreign Minister visits Kyiv
A German politician who forestalled her with a trip during the Ukraine war caused almost more of a stir: CDU leader Friedrich Merz, who tweeted a video from the sleeping car to Kyiv.
Classifications that the visit of the 66-year-old could be an election campaign maneuver with a view to the Schleswig-Holstein election and the NRW election, rejected CDU General Secretary Mario Czaja on Deutschlandfunk.
Incidentally, Merz thanked the Ukrainian head of state for Steinmeier's renewed invitation: "I am very grateful to President Selenskyj for accepting my request for an invitation from the Federal President," he told the dpa news agency.
Visits to Ukraine by German politicians: after Merz and Bas, now Baerbock in Kyiv
In recent weeks, Ukraine has repeatedly accused the ruling traffic light coalition of hesitating on arms deliveries.
The recent pledge of self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine could ease tensions between Berlin and Kyiv.
Selenskyj invited Scholz last Friday to come to Kyiv this Monday (May 9).
Whether and when the chancellor could travel remained unclear at the weekend.
French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to make his inaugural visit to Berlin after his re-election this evening.
(frs with material from dpa and AFP)
