Surprise visit to Kiev with a new “gift” to Ukraine but also criticism from the opposition. Response from Berlin

As is customary, visits by top German officials to Kiev are not announced until the last minute, if at all. So today.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz unexpectedly arrived by train in Kiev, delivering not only the usual messages of support to Ukraine but also 650 million euros of fresh German aid, from funds that are of course already available. And all this while Ukraine is going through another difficult winter, with Russia escalating its attacks on Ukrainian lands.

Drone, Iris-T, Leopard but not Taurus

It was Olaf Solz’s second visit to the Ukrainian capital since 2022 to express his solidarity with Ukraine. Together with Volodymyr Zelensky, he visited a hospital where war wounded are treated and paid tribute to a monument to the fallen soldiers of Ukraine from 2014 to the present day.

In the meantime, Germany has already announced the dispatch of 4,000 Helsing drones to Ukraine, while the German military aid package intended to support Kiev includes, according to the tagesschau.de website: two new Iris-T anti-aircraft systems, ten battle tanks Leopard 1A5 type, 60 infantry vehicles and M80 and M84 main battle tanks, 6,000 unguided and 500 guided rockets.

EE, NATO and puzzling peace plans

During his previous visit in June 2022, Olaf Solz, with French President Emmanuel Macron and then Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, had promised in Kiev to ease the way, in the future, to the EU. But it is not the case for the country’s accession to NATO either, with Germany and the US not yet considering that the country is ready for such a thing, despite the pressures of NATO’s eastern wing countries and Volodymyr Zelensky himself.

Recently, however, Olaf Solz had a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, for the first time since the freezing of bilateral contacts in 2022 against the background of possible future negotiations for peace in Ukraine, without giving further information. Immediately after the phone call, Volodymyr Zelensky was informed, who for his part had presented his “victory plan” in Berlin in October.

Solz’s new visit to Kyiv must be interpreted in a double light. On the one hand, in view of the early elections in Germany. Scholz is trying to send a double message: “yes” to supporting Ukraine, “no” to endangering peace in Germany and Europe by sending long-range Taurus missiles. On the other hand, the intense diplomatic activity observed in recent weeks in Berlin also has to do with Donald Trump’s next moves in relation to Moscow and Kiev. So far, the president-elect’s statements are cautious.

Criticism from the opposition

The Christian Democrats describe the chancellor’s sudden departure from Kiev as “disastrous”. CDU foreign policy chief Roderick Kiesewetter called Solz’s visit “an election maneuver” noting that he is “running an election campaign on the backs of the Ukrainian people, feeding the narrative of fear towards Russia.”

Sara Wagenknecht, head of the left-wing Alliance of the same name, also made a harsh criticism, stressing that a “chancellor without a majority” offers expensive equipment gifts “at the expense of German taxpayers”, while in Germany “hospitals are closing, schools are rotting and while death in Ukraine continues and more and more young men are dying at the front.”