Germany's Merz visits Kyiv as Russia steps up attacks on Ukrainian cities

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz arrived in Kyiv on Sunday for his second visit to Ukraine since taking office, reaffirming Germany's support as Russia intensified aerial attacks on Ukrainian cities.

Merz said his visit was intended to demonstrate Germany's solidarity with Ukraine and pledged continued support for Kyiv.

“If Russia is not stopped, its war machine will sooner or later turn against us,” Merz said in a statement. He told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy: “You can continue to count on our help.”

Germany has provided Ukraine with more than EUR 43.3 billion (USD 48.8 billion) in aid since Russia's full-scale invasion, including military equipment and weapons, making it Ukraine's largest donor.

Merz said cooperation between the two countries was “not a one-way street”, pointing to the joint development of technologies by German and Ukrainian companies.

Zelenskyy thanked Germany in a post on X, saying the two countries would reach “important agreements” during Merz's visit to strengthen Ukraine's defences and wider European security.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the talks would focus on strengthening Ukraine's defence and resilience and “our shared European security”.

Leaders visit attack site

Merz and Zelenskyy visited a building of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in central Kyiv that was damaged in a Russian attack on Monday.

Air raid sirens sounded across the capital during their visit.

“These barbaric attacks on the civilian population of Ukraine must stop. These are daily war crimes,” Merz said at the site, located a few hundred metres from the German Embassy.

Addressing Russian President Vladimir Putin, Merz called for an end to the war, saying: “We're ready to talk.”

Zelenskyy described the attack on the academy as “absolutely terrible” and noted that Russian strikes continued even while Merz was in Kyiv.

Russia warns of further strikes

Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that it would continue carrying out “mass retaliatory strikes” on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities and urged foreign nationals and diplomats to leave the country.

Relations between Germany and Russia have deteriorated further in recent weeks. The two countries' foreign ministers met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last month in what was believed to be their first face-to-face meeting since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov rejected German calls to reduce what Berlin described as a “dangerous path of escalation”, accusing Germany of being Ukraine's main sponsor and seeking to become a leading military power in Europe.

Germany has also accused Russia of being behind an attempted drone attack at Leipzig airport in early September and subsequently announced the closure of its consulate in St Petersburg.

Russian strikes hit Kyiv, Sumy

Russian attacks continued in Kyiv on Sunday, with a drone striking the Northern Bridge over the Dnipro River, Zelenskyy said.

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said two people were wounded. The attack came after Russian strikes earlier in the week forced the full or partial closure of three of Kyiv's six road bridges over the Dnipro River, disrupting traffic.

Russian forces have also struck apartment blocks, supermarket warehouses, petrol stations and data centres in Ukraine.

In Sumy, one person was killed and 16 wounded in a Russian aerial bomb attack on Sunday, local officials said.

Russia's Defence Ministry said it would intensify strikes on “military and military-industrial facilities, as well as related infrastructure” in Kyiv and other regions in response to Zelenskyy's comments that Ukraine would escalate attacks on Russian oil refineries.

The war, which began with Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, has shown few signs of a diplomatic breakthrough. Fighting along the roughly 1,250-kilometre front line across northern, eastern and southern Ukraine has remained largely deadlocked in recent months.