German Finance Minister plans Ukraine trip in coming months

Berlin, Aug 22 (SocialNews.XYZ) German Finance Minister Christian Lindner has said that he was in talks with Kiev to travel to Ukraine in the coming months.

Lindner, from the pro-business Free Democrats, told broadcaster ARD on Sunday that he would go in "late summer or autumn" and that plans were being coordinated with his Ukrainian counterpart Serhiy Marchenko.

The Finance Minister in May extended an invitation to Marchenko to visit Berlin, if he thought it would be useful.

In May, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock became the first member of the German government to visit Kiev since Russia's invasion on February 24, followed by several other Ministers. In June, Chancellor Olaf Scholz travelled to Ukraine.

As Russia's war on Ukraine stretches toward its sixth month, Scholz on Sunday expressed willingness to continue engaging diplomatically with President Vladimir Putin, dpa news agency reported.

But, he said, "you have to be clear, and you also must not let yourself be intimidated."

"Putin actually has the idea that you draw a pen across the European landscape, and then you say 'this is mine and this is yours,'" the Chancellor told a citizens' dialogue in Berlin.

"It doesn't work that way," he added.

In response to retired Bundeswehr general Klaus Wittmann, who had asked why Germany was not supplying any infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine, Scholz listed the deliveries of weapons of other types that had already taken place and were still planned and stressed that "Germany is supplying very, very many weapons".

Source: IANS