Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that Kyiv and its Western supporters could make a Russian defeat in the war "irreversible" as early as this year. On Sunday, Mr Scholz reiterated Berlin's firm backing, telling Mr Zelensky directly: "We will support you for as long as it is necessary." Once accused of reticence in supplying military gear to Ukraine, Germany has since become the second-biggest contributor of tanks, rockets and anti-missile systems to the country, after the United States. This year, we can make the aggressor's defeat irreversible," he said.Īlong with Mr Scholz, Mr Zelensky then travelled to the western city of Aachen, where he was due to pick up the Charlemagne award for efforts to foster European unity at a ceremony also attended by Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission President, and Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish prime minister.Īnticipating Mr Zelensky's arrival, several hundred Ukraine supporters holding blue balloons and wearing yellow-and-blue flags around their shoulders held a rally in Aachen. "Now is the time for us to determine the end of this war this year. In Berlin, he thanked Mr Scholz for Germany's "powerful support" in the form of the armaments package, saying "everything in this security package will significantly strengthen our defence". Mr Zelensky's weekend diplomatic tour comes ahead of a European summit in Reykjavik and a gathering of G7 leaders in Japan.
Later on Sunday he was due in Paris for meetings with Emmanuel Macron. The Ukrainian president had travelled to Berlin for talks with Mr Scholz and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier after meeting Italian leaders and Pope Francis in Rome.
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