Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/KYIV: Regional governor has said that Russian forces hit eastern Ukraine’s city of Kharkiv late on Tuesday, just hours after a surprise visit by the German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, with her Ukrainian counterpart.
Annalena has vowed further German support for Kyiv on her unannounced trip. Still, Ukraine’s top diplomat Dmytro Kuleba said that Berlin’s refusal to send his country battle tanks was costing lives.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has agreed to provide Ukraine Marder infantry fighting vehicles long sought by Kyiv in its battle against Russia.
Minister’s stance
Berlin has declined to supply Ukraine with more Leopard battle tanks. Kuleba, accompanying Annalena during her visit to the eastern city of Kharkiv, pressed Berlin again to send them.
She said that the “longer it takes to make a decision, the more people will die”.
“I do not doubt that Ukraine will receive German Leopard tanks. The German government, somewhere deep down, understands that this decision will be made, and the tanks will be transferred to Ukraine.
Kharkiv has faced heavy bombardment during the war, but the frontline has moved east since a Ukrainian counter-offensive retook territory from Russian forces last year.
“Stay in shelters. The occupiers bombing again!” regional governor Oleg Synegubov said on Telegram. An Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalist heard several explosions in the city.
Annalena, who on Tuesday became the highest-level Western official to visit Kharkiv, had pledged further German support for Kyiv.
She said that “In all parts of Ukraine, from Kharkiv to Kherson to Kyiv, people should know they can rely on our solidarity and support.”
