Germany’s minister of foreign affairs first political act of 2018, visiting his colleague, Pawlo Klimkin, in Kiew.

Main topics during the political meetings between both:

-The “actively reviewing” possibility of sending lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine by the USA, after the Ukrainian president, Petro Poroschenko, said at least 3,000 Russian troops were now on its soil.
-The Ukrainian and Russia-backed separatists mass prisoner swap of last December, marking the largest such deal since the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine broke out in 2014.
-And the importance of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM)
in both government- and non-government-controlled areas.

Today’s journey of Minister Gabriel leads us from Kiew Boryspil to Dnipropetrovsk, where he, together with his Ukrainian college, mr. Pawlo Klimkin wanted to take an helicopter to visit the OSCE (SMM) special Monitoring mission at Mariupol. Sadly enough the weather forcast was that bad that the helicopters could not take off, so the trip to Mariupol was cancelled.

The picture shows the both Ministers killing time, waiting wether the helicopter would start or not, at Dnipro-Airport.