Germany FM Visits Kyiv Amid Battles    05/21 06:20

   

   KYIV, Ukraine (AP) -- Germany's foreign minister arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday 
in the latest public display of support for Ukraine by its Western partners, 
although deliveries of promised weapons and ammunition from NATO countries like 
Germany have been slow and have left Ukraine vulnerable to a recent Russian 
push along parts of the front line.

   Annalena Baerbock renewed Berlin's calls for partners to send more air 
defense systems, as Russia pounds Ukraine with missiles, glide bombs and 
rockets. Germany is the second-biggest supplier of military aid to Ukraine 
after the United States.

   Ukraine's depleted troops are trying to hold off a fierce Russian offensive 
along the eastern border in one of the most critical phases of the war, which 
is stretching into its third year.

   Germany recently pledged a third U.S.-made Patriot battery for Ukraine, but 
Kyiv officials say they are still facing an alarming shortfall of air defenses 
against the Russian onslaught.

   The Kremlin's forces have used their advantage in the skies to debilitate 
Ukraine's power grid, hoping to sap Ukrainian morale and disrupt its defense 
industry.

   Baerbock, accompanied by Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko, 
toured a thermal power plant in central Ukraine that was heavily damaged on 
April 11. In the plant's scorched interior, workers of Centrenergo, a state 
company that operates the plant, were still scooping up rubble several weeks 
after it was hit.

   Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Kremlin's forces are still 
focusing their efforts on the eastern Donetsk province and northeastern Kharkiv 
region, where explosive-laden Russian glide bombs are wreaking destruction on 
military and civilian areas.

   "This brings us back again and again to the need for air defense -- for 
additional defense systems that could significantly mitigate the difficulties 
for our warriors and the threat to our cities and communities," Zelenskyy said 
late Monday on social media.

   Zelenskyy claimed Ukraine's forces are still in control of the contested 
areas, though Russia says it has captured a series of border villages.

   It was not possible to independently verify either side's battlefield claims.

   Baerbock had planned to visit Kharkiv on Tuesday but the trip had to be 
called off for security reasons, German news agency dpa reported. Almost 11,000 
people have been evacuated from Kharkiv border areas since Russia launched its 
offensive actions there on May 10.

   A Russian overnight drone attack hit transport infrastructure in Kharkiv 
city, the regional capital, damaging over 25 trucks, buses, and other vehicles, 
regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said Tuesday. Seven people were injured, he said.

   Ukraine's general staff said the frequency of Russian attacks in Kharkiv 
slowed on Monday, though fighting continued.

   Russian troops are also conducting reconnaissance and sabotage raids in 
Ukraine's northern Sumy and Chernihiv regions, shelling border settlements and 
laying more minefields, according to Dmytro Lykhovii, Ukraine's general staff 
spokesman. The front line is some 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) long.

   Baerbock was due to meet with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in 
Kyiv. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been resisting appeals from Ukrainian 
officials to provide Taurus missiles, which are equipped with stealth 
technology and have a range of up to 500 kilometers (300 miles).

   The German- and Swedish-made missiles would be able to reach targets deep in 
Russia from Ukrainian soil. But Berlin has balked at that prospect, saying that 
sending the missiles would bring a risk of it becoming directly involved in the 
war.

   The restriction on not allowing Ukraine to fire at Russia has denied Kyiv 
the ability to strike at Russian troops and equipment massing for attacks on 
the other side of the border, a Washington-based think tank said.

   "These U.S. and Western policies are severely compromising Ukraine's ability 
to defend itself against current Russian offensive operations in northern 
Kharkiv (region) or any area along the international border where Russian 
forces may choose to conduct offensive operations in the future," the Institute 
for the Study of War said in an assessment late Monday.

   Baerbock said in a statement that Ukraine's prospective membership of the 
European Union is "the necessary geopolitical consequence of Russia's illegal 
war of aggression."

   Ukraine has made "impressive progress" and must not let up in reforms to the 
judicial system, in fighting corruption and on media freedom, she said.

   Germany will host a reconstruction conference for Ukraine next month. 
Rebuilding the country is predicted to cost hundreds of billions of dollars.