German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht paid a surprise visit to Ukraine on Saturday, her first since the start of the Russian invasion, at a time when kyiv is insistently demanding that Berlin deliver combat tanks.
Christine Lambrecht visited the port city of Odessa in southern Ukraine, the German Defense Ministry said in a statement, without specifying the duration of the visit.
She notably met her Ukrainian counterpart Oleksiï Reznikov.
Read alsoGermany, accused of slowing the delivery of tanks to Ukraine
Ukrainian leaders have been asking the German government for several weeks to authorize the delivery of modern combat tanks likely to make a difference against Russian troops.
No NATO country has so far supplied Western battle tanks to kyiv, which receives Soviet-designed equipment.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz affirms that he does not want to go it alone in terms of arms delivery and will only take decisions in consultation with his Western allies.
Christine Lambrecht's visit comes the day after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Friday the annexation of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson.
These annexations were unanimously condemned by Ukraine's allies.
