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- German foreign minister visits Kyiv, pledges continued support for Ukraine</p>
<p>June 30, 2025 at 2:47 AM</p>
<p>FILE - A Russian drone attacks a building during Russia's massive missile and drone air attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, June 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, file) ()</p>
<p>KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul made an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Monday, in a show of continuing support for Ukraine's fight to repel Russia's invasion as U.S.-led international peace efforts fail to make progress.</p>
<p>Wadephul was due to meet with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.</p>
<p>Wadephul said in a statement that Germany will help Ukraine "continue to defend itself successfully — with modern air defense and other weapons, with humanitarian and economic aid."</p>
<p>Germany has been Ukraine's second-largest military backer after the United States, whose continuing support is in doubt.</p>
<p>However, Berlin has balked at granting Zelenskyy's request to provide Ukraine with powerful German- and Swedish-made Taurus long-range missiles. That's due to fears that such a move could enrage the Kremlin and end up drawing NATO into Europe's biggest conflict since World War II.</p>
<p>Instead, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz pledged in May to help Ukraine develop its own long-range missile systems that would be free of any Western-imposed limitations on their use and targets.</p>
<p>Wadephul was accompanied on his trip to Kyiv by German defense industry representatives.</p>
<p>Russia's invasion shows no sign of letting up. Its grinding war of attrition along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line and long-range strikes on civilian areas of Ukraine have killed thousands of troops and civilians.</p>
<p>The Russian effort to capture more Ukrainian territory has been costly in terms of casualties and damaged armor. But Russian President Vladimir Putin has effectively rejected a ceasefire and hasn't budged from his war goals.</p>
<p>Putin "doesn't want negotiations, but (Ukrainian) capitulation," Wadephul said in his statement.</p>
<p>Russia launched its biggest combined aerial attack against Ukraine at the weekend, Ukrainian officials said, in its escalating bombing campaign that has further dashed hopes for a breakthrough in peace efforts.</p>
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<p>Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://ift.tt/XVpNdu2>
Source: AOL General News
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