Germany’s Vice Chancellor and Economics Minister Robert Habeck arrived in Ukraine for political talks with a small delegation of German business representatives. Topics of the trip are the reconstruction of Ukraine and cooperation in the energy sector.

Habeck wants to relaunch the German-Ukrainian energy partnership. He announced this after visiting one of the substations of the energy company Ukrenergo, which supplies one of Ukraine’s most densely populated areas with energy. “The wish and the strategic plans – and these are security plans of the Ukrainians – are actually to make the energy system broader and more decentralized,” said Habeck.

Germany and Ukraine have had a formal energy partnership since 2020, which is intended to help drive the shift towards more climate-friendly forms of energy production. Among other things, it is about increasing energy efficiency, modernizing the electricity sector, expanding renewable energies and reducing greenhouse gases.

Ukraine should get a clear signal “that we believe that it will be victorious, that it will be rebuilt, that Europe has an interest not only in providing support in times of need but that Ukraine is also an economically strong country partner in the future,” Habeck said upon his arrival at the Kyiv train station.

Habeck is travelling to the country for the first time since Russian troops invaded Ukraine on February 24 last year – and for the first time ever as federal minister. His trip was planned for last fall but had to be postponed because of the Russian winter offensive in Ukraine, Habeck said.

Image by Heinrich Böll Stiftung (Flickr)/ Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)