Kyiv, Ukraine/Berlin, Germany
Reuters
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday Kyiv and its allies could make a Russian defeat “irreversible” as early as this year as he secured a bumper new military package on a trip to Germany.
The visit formed part of a whirlwind weekend tour of several key European allies to drum up military and financial support ahead of an expected major Ukrainian counter-offensive against Russian forces.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier welcomes Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at Bellevue Palace in Berlin, Germany, on 14th May, 2023. PICTURE: Reuters/Michele Tantussi
It was the Ukrainian leader’s first visit to Germany since Russia’s invasion in February, 2022. He also met Italian officials and Pope Francis in Rome on Saturday and late on Sunday he met French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee palace before the two went inside for a dinner meeting.
“Now is the time for us to determine the end of the war already this year, we can make the aggressor’s defeat irreversible already this year,” Zelenskiy said during a joint news conference in Berlin with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
ZELENSKIY COLLECTS CHARLEMAGNE PRIZE ON BEHALF OF UKRAINIAN PEOPLE
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy collected the prestigious Charlemagne Prize on behalf of the Ukrainian people on Sunday in honour of services to Europe, capping a visit to Germany in which he secured new military aid and warm support from Berlin.
Zelenskiy flew to the western city of Aachen with Chancellor Olaf Scholz following talks in the German capital. He received a standing ovation at a ceremony in the Coronation room of Aachen town hall, where he was awarded the prize, which celebrates services to European unification.
“Ukrainians will always make Europe stronger,” Zelenskiy said in English before switching to Ukrainian to address the gathering that included European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
“Ukraine is proposing a victory not just in this war but a victory over aggression, annexations, deportations over the catastrophe of genocide, anywhere throughout the world,” he said.
Speaking at the same event, Scholz stressed Germany’s backing for Ukrainian aspirations to join the European Union although he had earlier side-stepped a question on Kyiv’s rapid accession to the NATO military alliance.
“Vladimir Putin may have thought he could force the Ukrainian nation off its path to Europe through violence, but all his tanks, drones and rocket launchers have had quite the opposite effect,” Scholz said.
Aachen was the residence of the Emperor Charlemagne, often called the “father of Europe”, who managed to unite much of western Europe in the early ninth century.
The Ukrainian people, under Zelenskiy’s leadership, are fighting not only for their country “but also Europe and European values”, the prize committee said in a statement.
The award underscored the committee’s conviction that Ukraine deserved “to enter swiftly into accession negotiations with the European Union”.
Previous recipients of the prize include French President Emmanuel Macron and former German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
– MATTHIAS WILLIAMS, SARAH MARSH, RONALD POPESKI, ANDREAS RINKE, Berlin, Germany/Reuters
Scholz underscored Germany’s pledge to continue to support Ukraine for as long as necessary, brushing aside a question about earlier tensions in bilateral relations and side-stepping another question about Kyiv’s hopes to join NATO.
Germany, which is Europe’s largest economy, faced criticism at the start of the war for what some called a hesitant response, but it has become one of Ukraine’s biggest providers of financial and military assistance.
The German government announced €2.7 billion package of military aid to Ukraine on Saturday, its biggest such package since Russia’s invasion.
Zelenskiy said Kyiv was prepared to discuss external peace initiatives but said those proposals should be based on Ukraine’s position and its peace plan.
“The war is happening on the territory of our country and so any peace plan will be based on Ukraine’s proposals,” he said, wearing his trademark khaki combat trousers and a black sweater.
Kyiv has ruled out the idea of any territorial concessions to Russia and has said it wants every inch of its land back. Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and since last year has claimed to have annexed four other Ukrainian regions, which Moscow now calls Russian land.
“Ukraine is ready for peace. But it demands, rightly and with our support, that this cannot mean to freeze the war and have a form of dictated peace by Russia,” said Scholz.
Zelenskiy’s visit came as Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Sunday that two of its military commanders were killed in eastern Ukraine, as Kyiv’s forces renewed efforts to break through Russian defences in the city of Bakhmut that has been the focus of months of bloody fighting.
Past tensions
Zelenskiy left open the prospect of a “risk that if the (counter)offensive is not very successful that there will be less support, but I don’t think this is the general view”.
“There are some countries that are thinking about it, but I don’t think they’ve been very strong in their support for Ukraine throughout this period,” he added, without specifying which countries could waver in their backing for Ukraine.
Zelenskiy visited Germany for the Munich Security Council in February last year, just before the war broke out. Germany was constrained in its support for Ukraine at that time both by its energy dependence on Russia and the pacifism that emerged from its bloody 20th century history.
Increasing its support required a major policy upheaval and a shift in mindset that Scholz dubbed a “Zeitenwende”, or turn of era, in a landmark speech just days after the war broke out.
During his trip to Germany Zelenskiy also travelled with Scholz to the western city of Aachen to receive the prestigious Charlemagne Prize in honour of services to Europe at a ceremony attended by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
In a speech at the ceremony, Scholz gave Germany’s “full support” to Ukraine’s journey towards membership of the European Union.
Ukrainian servicemen look on after a fight, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, near the front line city of Bakhmut, in Donetsk region, Ukraine, on 11th May, 2023. PICTURE: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty/Serhii Nuzhnenko via Reuters
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Sunday that two of its military commanders were killed in eastern Ukraine, as Kyiv’s forces renewed efforts to break through Russian defences in the embattled city of Bakhmut.
In a daily briefing, the ministry said that Commander Vyacheslav Makarov of the 4th Motorized Rifle Brigade and Deputy Commander Yevgeny Brovko from a separate unit were killed trying to repel Ukrainian attacks.
It said that Makarov had been leading troops from the front line, and that Brovko “died heroically, suffering multiple shrapnel wounds”. The defence ministry rarely announces the deaths of military command in its daily briefings.
It also said Ukrainian forces waged attacks in the north and south of Bakhmut over the past 24 hours, but that they had not broken through Russian defences. “All attacks by units of Ukraine’s armed forces have been repelled,” it said.
Reuters was not able to independently verify Russia’s account.
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Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar confirmed on Sunday that Ukrainian forces “continue to move forward in the Bakhmut sector in the suburbs.”
“Our units captured more than ten enemy positions in the north and south of Bakhmut and cleared a large area of forest near Ivanivske. Enemy soldiers from different units were captured,” she said on the Telegram messaging app.
Neither Ukraine or Russian forces have been able to take full control of the city, despite months of grinding warfare that has inflicted heavy losses on both sides.
Moscow acknowledged on Friday that its forces had fallen back north of Bakhmut amid a surge of Ukrainian attacks, but Kyiv has played down suggestions a huge, long-planned counteroffensive has officially begun.
– With reporting by TOM BALMFORTH, ANDREAS RINKE, VICTORIA WALDERSEE and MATHIAS WILLIAMS; Additional reporting by SUDIP KAR-GUPTA, BETRAND BOUCEY and ELIZABETH PINEAU, and Reuters bureaux.
