The visit comes weeks before the German leader is set to ask his parliament for a vote of no confidence, which he is widely expected to lose.
Germany’s Olaf Scholz arrived in Ukraine on Monday for his second trip to the region during his tenure as Chancellor.
His visit comes both at a time on escalated Russian attacks on Ukraine and as his government faces political crisis at home that looks likely to remove him from power during elections in February next year.
Scholz promised an additional aid package to Ukraine during his visit, saying that Germany would deliver “further armaments worth 650 million euros” to the war-torn country.
The German leader has come under criticism for his approach to Ukraine, primarily due to his refusal to send powerful Taurus cruise missiles to the country, which he has long-argued would risk Germany becoming directly involved in the conflict.
Oleksiy Makeev, Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, previously called Scholz’s refusal to send the weapons a “blank cheque for the Russians”.
Scholz drew further criticism in November after he spoke on the telephone with Russian President Vladimir Putin — a call that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said opened “Pandora’s box” and undermined international efforts to isolate Russia.
This is a developing story and our journalists are working on bringing you further updates.
