Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock travelled to Ukraine on Tuesday. On a visit to see Bucha at first-hand, the minister pledged full support in solving Russian war crimes. “We owe it to the victims not just to remember them here but to bring the perpetrators to justice,” the minister urged. Following the withdrawal of Russian troops over 400 bodies were found in Bucha.

Justice for all

While in Bucha the Foreign Minister also visited a church where she lit a candle, and acknowledged that crimes almost impossible to imagine had been committed even in consecrated places such as this. No-one could take the pain away, the minister said, but “we can fight for justice for all.” 

Meeting with President Zelensky

That afternoon the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky received Baerbock in Kyiv. The Foreign Minister informed him that training would commence in a few days for Ukrainian soldiers in the use of the Panzerhaubitze 2000, which Germany is supplying in collaboration with the Netherlands. Baerbock expressed her “incredible delight to be here in liberated Kyiv.” Her message was clear, she said: “Ukraine can rely on our support, not just in military form, and not just for today.”

The fight for Ukraine marks a “turning-point”

In her talks with Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Kyiv, Baerbock expressed how she was stunned at the brutality with which Russia wanted to destroy “not only this city of freedom but also the very existence of the whole country.” She stressed that “the courage with which the Ukrainian people are stopping this can hardly be believed.” According to Baerbock, the war in Ukraine marked “a turning-point in the contest between liberal democracies and autocratic regimes.” “Many around the world will draw their own conclusions from your example,” she said.

The minister was also in Kyiv to reopen the German Embassy there. The mission will initially carry out a limited range of activities.