The Green Party chairwoman Franziska Brantner has urged Chancellor Friedrich Merz to travel to Kyiv to reaffirm Germany’s support for Ukraine. “Right now, more than words from Berlin is needed” she told the newspapers of the Funke Media Group in a Tuesday edition. “I expect the Chancellor to go to Kyiv and, together with the coalition of willing partners, make a clear statement”. She said solidarity must be shown on the ground, not from a safe distance in the warm Chancellor’s office.
Brantner criticized the December summit in Berlin, which she sees as allowing Europeans to be sidelined while Ukraine negotiates solely with Trump and Putin. “Anyone who really wants peace must help Ukraine defend itself” she said. She added that pressure on Russia must increase: halt the Russian “shadow fleet” advance the use of frozen Russian assets, and deliver on the promised Taurus missile deals.
In that context Brantner also referenced recent Russian attacks on Ukraine. “While peace is being discussed, Putin continues his terror” she told the Funke papers. “Targeted attacks on houses and energy infrastructure are designed to make people freeze in winter”. She highlighted that overnight temperatures in Kyiv can reach -20 °C, while hundreds of thousands live in cold, dark conditions, exhausted and threatened by the cold. “This is not collateral damage; it is calculation, a war crime”.