German foreign minister visits Kyiv, pledges continued support for Ukraine
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.
Wadephul was due to meet with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.
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.'
Germany has been Ukraine's second-largest military backer after the United States, whose continuing support is in doubt.
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.
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.
Wadephul was accompanied on his trip to Kyiv by German defense industry representatives.
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.
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.
Putin 'doesn't want negotiations, but (Ukrainian) capitulation,' Wadephul said in his statement.
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.
___
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
28 minutes ago
- BBC News
July Tynwald sitting extended for high volume of business
The July sitting of the Manx parliament has been moved forward by a day to accommodate the "extra large volume of business before the court", the President of Tynwald has Skelly confirmed the meeting would start on 14 July, previously scheduled for a day later. It is the final session before members break up for the summer recess. The busy agenda is set to include debates on the Chief Constable's annual report, a £15.3m overspend in health for the last financial year and changes to how the island's minimum wage is calculated. Other items include the regulations governing the introduction of an opt-out system for organ Council of Ministers' updated report on inward migration and a select committee report footpaths, bridleways and green lanes are also expected to be sitting marks the final meeting of parliamentary members with no further House of Keys sittings, before the summer follows the island's national celebration Tynwald Day, which this year falls on 7 July. Read more stories from the Isle of Man on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC Isle of Man on Facebook and X.
Reuters
34 minutes ago
- Reuters
Landmark EU tech rules holding back innovation, Google says
BRUSSELS, July 1 (Reuters) - Alphabet's (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Google will on Tuesday warn EU antitrust regulators and its critics that landmark European Union rules aimed at reining in Big Tech are hampering innovation to the detriment of European users and businesses. The U.S. tech giant will also urge regulators to give more detailed guidance to help it comply with the rules, and ask its critics to provide evidence of costs and benefits to prove their case. Google is under pressure to address charges under the EU's Digital Markets Act that it favours its own services such as Google Shopping, Google Hotels and Google Flights over rivals. The charges may result in fines of as much as 10% of its global annual revenue. Earlier this month, Google proposed more changes to its search results to better showcase rival products, but critics say these still do not ensure a level playing field. "We remain genuinely concerned about real world consequences of the DMA, which are leading to worse online products and experiences for Europeans," Google's lawyer Clare Kelly will tell a workshop organised by the European Commission to give Google critics the opportunity to seek clarifications. She will say changes implemented by Google to date after discussions with the Commission and its critics have resulted in European users paying more for travel tickets as they cannot directly access airline sites, according to a copy of her speech seen by Reuters. Kelly will also say European airlines, hotels and restaurants have reported up to a 30% loss in direct booking traffic, while users have complained about clunky workarounds. Google's other lawyer, Oliver Bethell, will ask regulators to spell out in detail what the company needs to do, and critics to come up with hard evidence. "If we can understand precisely what compliance looks like, not just in theory, but taking account of on the ground experience, we can launch compliant services quickly and confidently across the EEA," he will say. The EEA is the 27 EU countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. "We need help identifying the areas where we should focus. That means bringing real evidence of costs and benefits that we can take account of with the Commission," Bethell said. The day-long workshop starts at 0700 GMT.
Telegraph
36 minutes ago
- Telegraph
I am alive because my ancestors realised Jews were in danger. Britain is nearly there
The reason that I am alive today is that, for my ancestors, there was a moment that they realised that their country was falling apart and becoming unsafe for Jews. For me, that moment came as I saw the footage from Glastonbury. As Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, I have had a front row seat as this country that sheltered my grandparents during the Second World War has become increasingly unrecognisable through hatred and extremism. But Glastonbury was a pivotal moment for me, when some kind of ancestral sense was activated. Tens of thousands of young humanitarians at the country's premier music festival were chanting for 'death', in scenes reminiscent of mass rallies in Tehran or Sanaa, beamed into the homes of millions by the national broadcaster. None of this should have come as a surprise. Bob Vylan has apparently engaged in this kind of behaviour before, and Glastonbury was already taking place under a cloud of controversy that it had courted by inviting soon-to-be-proscribed-as-terrorists Palestine Action to address the crowds and Kneecap to headline. The Prime Minister had warned that the Kneecapper on trial for allegedly supporting terrorists 'shouldn't' be allowed to play, and the BBC – which had to pull a documentary after it emerged that a senior Hamas member's family had been paid for assistance in its production – said it 'probably' would not broadcast Kneecap's performance. But none of this prevented Bob Vylan's rant about having to 'work for Zionists', chants for 'death' and the obliteration of the entire Jewish state 'from the River to the Sea' from appearing on screens in living rooms across the country, courtesy of the supposedly genteel and tolerant BBC. Now of course, everyone is taken aback. Glastonbury's managing dynasty, fronted by Emily Eavis, is 'appalled' that the acts they chose so carefully behaved in this manner. The BBC says that the whole thing was 'utterly unacceptable' and Ofcom is 'very concerned'. Just another set of rapped knuckles and feigned surprise, but this is far bigger than that. I have fought for over ten years alongside valiant, patriotic people, as Campaign Against Antisemitism has strained to wake up our countrymen to the radicals brainwashing their children and the toxic extremism taking over our institutions. We will continue to fight on, but for me, personally, this is the moment that the country that I grew up in ceased to exist. To my mind, the fight now is to restore something that we have lost, not to protect something still extant. Once tolerant and decent Britain is a place where incitement to riot over Southport will rightly result in the full force of the law being brought to bear, while you can stand on a stage at Glastonbury and lead scenes reminiscent of a Nuremberg rally without facing much more than expressions of disapproval. British justice, once famed around the world, is used to arrest counterprotesters like Mark Birbeck and Niyak Ghorbani standing up with signs saying 'Hamas are terrorists' lest they provoke the ire of racists and bigots nearby. Campaign Against Antisemitism's billboard vans showing the faces of children kidnapped and taken hostage by Hamas were shut down and ordered to leave London by police in case they caused offence to Hamas supporters in the capital. When I tried crossing the road at the weekly marches that spew hatred on our streets, I was stopped not by protesters but by the police for being 'quite openly Jewish', and then attacked in the media by commentators wondering what business a Jew had being in town anyway and what my motives were for having the audacity to walk anywhere in my home town that I please. This country has lost its soul and lost the plot, and there is not a lot of time left to do something about it. If you find that over the top, ask yourself this. Had Glastonbury – where people are apparently more concerned about cows being milked for human benefit than about calls for certain humans to be killed – platformed acts bemoaning having to work for black people or calling for the obliteration of a Muslim state what would have happened? How about if they presented artists who have supported the BNP or EDL? Reputable musicians would have boycotted Glastonbury. The BBC would have cut its live feed, apologised and pledged never to broadcast the festival again. The Prime Minister would have reassured anyone affected and talked about the underlying causes. Police forces would have mobilised officers while Crown Prosecutors cleared their schedules. But instead it was just another weekend in Britain. While the scenes at Glastonbury unfolded, taxpayer-supported broadcaster, Channel 4, announced plans to air a film that the national broadcaster, the BBC, shelved because it worried that it might be too biased towards Hamas. A regulated law firm announced that it would dedicate itself to removing the proscription on Hamas as a terrorist group. Just another weekend in Britain. Like all the weekends we've seen for over a year and half now. But not for me. Not for most Jews. And not for many of my fellow citizens who are not Jewish, but who see that the country they knew is vanishing before their very eyes. Moral clarity came from the US, where it has been made known that neither Kneecap nor Bob Vylan will be granted entry – 'Foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country,' said the State Department. Of course they remain adored by their self-righteous, brainwashed young fans here in Britain – a country that is not just becoming unsafe for Jews, it is becoming a haven for hatred. This must be the moment that the country wakes up. That means each of us. Demand action. Use your voice. Please, before there is nothing left to save.
