Zelenskyy makes unexpected Berlin visit for talks with Merz ahead of Abu Dhabi meeting
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made an unexpected visit to Berlin for talks with German chancellor Friedrich Merz, which Merz confirmed during an industry speech after rumours circulated overnight. The meeting comes ahead of next week’s trilateral talks involving Russia, the United States and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi.
Merz said Germany’s push to increase defence spending was triggered by Zelenskyy’s meeting with Trump last year, placing the Berlin stop in a wider effort to keep military support and air defence in focus as Kyiv prepares for those talks.
Before arriving, Zelenskyy condemned overnight Russian attacks on critical infrastructure across the country, which he said were causing emergency and unscheduled power outages. He said the assault involved 289 drones, 59 cruise missiles and 17 ballistic missiles and also hit civilian buildings, including a city hospital in Kharkiv where 73 people were injured. A rescue operation has been under way since the previous day in Komyshuvakha, in the Zaporizhzhia region; Zelenskyy said the death toll there had risen and that Russia had killed 29 people.
He said it was telling that the strikes came on the day of US congressional elections, arguing that Russia believed America would not notice the signal, but that such terror must be noticed and stopped. Ukraine must be helped to defend its skies, he said, or Russia will never stop its missile strikes; it is essential to help build peace honestly and reliably, and America can do that.
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