Germany’s president Frank-Walter Steinmeier arrived in Kyiv Tuesday for his first visit to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s invasion, a trip that comes amid Moscow's unsubstantiated warnings of a "dirty bomb” attack as the conflict enters its ninth month.
President Steinmeier said after arriving that "it was important to me in this phase of air attacks with drones, cruise missiles and rockets to send a signal of solidarity to Ukrainians,” German news agency dpa reported.
Steinmeier’s spokesperson, Cerstin Gammelin, posted a picture of him in Kyiv on Tuesday. "Our solidarity is unbroken, and it will remain so,” she tweeted.
The German president, whose position is largely ceremonial, made it to Ukraine on his third try.
In April, he was planning to visit the country with his Polish and Baltic counterparts, but said his presence "apparently … wasn’t wanted in Kyiv.” Steinmeier has been criticized in Ukraine for allegedly cozying up to Russia during his time as Germany's foreign minister.
