Frank-Walter Steinmeier made the trip to offer more support to Kiev
German President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, had to spend over an hour in a basement bomb shelter due to an air raid warning, the German ARD broadcaster reported on Tuesday.
Correspondent, Rebecca Barth, posted an image of Steinmeier and other officials sharing a small room with a crowd of people on Twitter.
According to Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to Ukraine’s interior minister, the alarm was raised as the German president was talking to the media in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernigov. The official said it was “a very good illustration why Ukraine needs more air defense systems” as soon as possible.
Berlin pledged to send state-of-the-art Iris-T air defense systems to Ukraine back in June. Only one of the four promised units has been delivered so far. On Monday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed to deliver the remaining three as quickly as possible.
Kiev repeatedly criticized Berlin for supposedly not providing enough military assistance and for refusing to provide it with Leopard battle tanks and Marder infantry fighting vehicles. It also requested at least a dozen Iris-T air defense systems, according to some reports.
It’s Steinmeier’s first visit to Ukraine since the start of the conflict between Kiev and Moscow in late February. It was initially planned for last week but was delayed due to security reasons.
READ MORE: German president arrives in Kiev
The president came to Ukraine to assure it of Berlin’s continued support but focused mostly on infrastructure repairs and “city partnership networks,” according to his spokeswoman, Cerstin Gammelin.
The president also encouraged Germans, who have had to limit their energy consumption and heating temperatures due to an energy crunch partly caused by the EU drive to get rid of Russian energy imports, to “look through the eyes of the Ukrainians for a moment.”
