German foreign minister visits Kharkiv on Ukrainian Flag Day

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul visited Kharkiv on 23 August while on a visit to Ukraine.

Source: news agency DPA, as reported by European Pravda; Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on X (Twitter)

Details: During the visit, Wadephul spoke with university students, inspected a power station that had already been struck six times by Russian missiles and visited a metro depot that was badly damaged back in 2022. On Ukraine's Flag Day, he also took part in a ceremony near one of the tallest flagpoles in Europe.

Wadephul also paid tribute to the "extraordinary will to resist" shown by Kharkiv residents. He said the city has a "spirit of resisting Russian violence and keeping life going" – a spirit he said should be carried into Europe.

It was Wadephul's first visit to an area close to the front line during his fourth trip to Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during a meeting in Kyiv on 23 August, thanked him in particular "for his upcoming trip to Ukrainian regions where the situation is difficult due to Russian shelling".

DPA reported that Wadephul travelled to Kharkiv on the afternoon of 23 August after political talks in the capital and stopped overnight in the city of Poltava.

Background:

• Wadephul's predecessor Annalena Baerbock visited Kharkiv in 2023.
• The following year, she was forced to cut short a visit to Mykolaiv Oblast after a drone pursued her convoy.

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