German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck arrived in Kiev on Thursday for a visit focused on Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, emergency aid, and strengthening the country's economy.
Habeck, who also serves as economy minister, is accompanied by a business delegation. The trip comes as Germany prepares to put on the next Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin on June 11 and 12. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are jointly hosting the international meeting.
Habeck said upon arrival that the visit was taking place at a time when Ukraine needed all the support it could get in its "fight for freedom."
"Yes, Ukraine is fighting for its own self-determination, for its territorial integrity against [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's aggression, but is also fighting for the values that unite and characterize Europe," he said.
In Kiev, Habeck will meet Zelensky, Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko and Energy Minister German Galushchenko, among others.
Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian power plants have intensified in recent weeks. The renewed aerial assaults, which cut electricity to homes and industry, comes as Ukraine's air defences run increasingly thin.
At the weekend, the German government announced it would supply Kiev with another Patriot air defence system.
But a badly needed military aid package from the United States remains stalled, while Europe's drive to get more ammunition to Ukraine's battlefield troops has fallen short of its goal.
"The situation is certainly challenging, but the Ukrainians have managed to hold their own time and again over the past two years. And what Germany can do to support them, it will do," Habeck said.
Helmut Rauch, head of Germany's Diehl Defence, which manufactures the IRIS-T air defence systems, was among those accompanying Habeck. Diehl has so far supplied Kiev with three IRIS-Ts.
"Our long-term goal is, of course, to be able to maintain and repair the systems ourselves on site in Ukraine," Rauch said.
Jörg Ebel, the president of the German Solar Industry Association, said in Kiev that he saw huge potential for solar in Ukraine, both in the short- and long-term.
Solar energy is affordable, reliable, and can be easily deployed, Ebel said. "This means that it is also very, very well suited to future attacks, because it cannot be threatened or even switched off in one fell swoop," he said.
Habeck will later travel on to Moldova to meet with Prime Minister Dorin Recean. The pro-Western leadership of the country, which is striving to join the EU, sees Moldova, which borders on Ukraine, as threatened by Moscow.
Tensions between Moldova and its breakaway region Transnistria have also risen since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago. In February, Transnistria's separatists asked Russia for protection "in the face of increasing pressure from Moldova."
The West accuses Russia of deliberately trying to destabilize the situation. "Moscow's aggression is also affecting Ukraine's neighbours with full force," Habeck said.