Federal President Steinmeier is visiting Ukraine. Because of an air raid, like other citizens of the city of Koryukivka, he has to go to a shelter. The people there tell him about life since the Russian attack. The German head of state is impressed.
During his visit to Ukraine, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier got a small impression of what the war in the country means for the people. Immediately after his arrival in the small town of Koryukivka, north-east of Kyiv, an air raid alarm was sounded there. Steinmeier, Mayor Ratan Achmedow and a group of citizens then went to an air raid shelter.
There, the Federal President had the people report on how they experienced the Russian war of aggression. A woman tearfully told about the start of the war on February 24, another about her husband, who is fighting against the Russian army. “My husband is on the front lines, on the hottest front lines,” she said.
“We spent the first hour and a half in the air raid shelter,” Steinmeier said afterwards. “That gave us a particularly impressive insight into the conditions under which people live here.” It was a situation that could not be ruled out during the visit. The people there have to live with this situation every day. “Having the conversation there was particularly impressive. And I think it wasn’t just me.”
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, the Russian army had launched up to ten Iranian-made combat drones in neighboring Belarus. That’s why the alarm went off. Nothing is known about impacts and damage.
Steinmeier had already visited Koryukivka in 2021. During the Second World War in 1943, the city was the scene of an SS massacre of the inhabitants. The Federal President arrived in Kyiv in the morning and then drove on to Chernihov. Talks are still planned in the capital during the course of the day, including with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
