German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock arrived in Kyiv this morning on another surprise visit on a mission that cannot be called a diplomatic one, but occurred in the context of supplying Kyiv with more air defense and cruise missiles, according to Der Spiegel.
In Kyiv, Baerbock said she has launched a global initiative for more air defense, together with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. Almost €1 billion has now been raised to provide additional support for the Ukrainian air defense forces. She proclaimed magnanimously that the money is being raised to ensure “that Putin’s troops do not soon find themselves on our own borders.”
She said that imperial madness has driven Putin to seek to seize Ukraine, but his actions only served to weld Kyiv closer to Europe. In her estimation, Ukraine’s accession to the EU was the necessary geopolitical consequence of Russia’s war of aggression, in violation of international law. (Somehow, she managed to ignore that Kyiv’s accession to the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union in 2014 was what prompted the British Foreign Office and U.S. State Department to overthrow Ukraine’s legally elected government, and install Nazis tied to Hitler’s ally Stepan Bandera.)
“Russian missile terror, constant air raids, permanent power cuts, hardly any water: the situation in Ukraine has worsened dramatically with the massive Russian airstrikes on civilian infrastructure and the brutal Russian offensive in the Kharkiv region,” she said. Everyday life was hard for the people, but they did not let it get them down. She spoke of the “impressive resilience” and courage of the Ukrainians. “In order to protect Ukraine from the Russian missile and drone hail, it urgently needs more air defense,” insisted Baerbock.
