Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock paid a surprise visit to Kyiv during the weekend to express continued solidarity – backed by new polls showing most Germans want to keep supporting Ukraine despite high gas prices.
With her third visit to Kyiv this year – the second since the start of Russia’s attack on the country – Baerbock said on Saturday that she wanted to “show that Germany will support Ukraine for as long as necessary.”
Polls published on Friday by public TV station ZDF show that 70% of Germans think the country should continue supporting Ukraine despite high energy prices.
Dwindling Russian gas supplies have driven gas and electricity prices up in Germany, and the situation is expected to worsen in winter.
The share of those in favour of continued support include almost all Green voters (97%), 82% of the supporters of Chancellor Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), around three-quarters for the Liberals (FDP) and the Conservatives (CDU), less than 60% for the Left party and less than a third for the far-right AfD.
However, Baerbock did not come to Kyiv with any concrete promises for fresh arm shipments or other kinds of aid – much to the dismay of her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, who she met with for bilateral talks.
“Every day on which someone in Berlin is reflecting and seeking out counsel, people are dying here because the tank has not been delivered,” Kuleba said during a joint press conference.
Baerbock, who is seen as one of those pushing for more and faster weapon deliveries within the governing coalition, acknowledged the major military advances made by Ukraine during the weekend: “Of course I hear, dear Dmytro, that you – carried forward by the good news during the last days – just continue to need this support.”