KYIV -- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz arrived in Kyiv on an unannounced visit on December 2 vowing to deliver hundreds of millions of euros in additional weapons for Ukraine's defense this month, with questions mounting among Kyiv's allies and signs of a possible diplomatic shift around the 3-year-old full-scale Russian invasion.
Scholz's visit follows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's suggestion that an invitation of NATO membership even limited to territory under Kyiv's control could put an end to "the hot stage of the war."
It also comes ahead of a U.S. presidential transition in January and a German election expected in February.
After arriving by train on December 2, Scholz met in Kyiv with Zelenskiy for the first time since the Ukrainian president publicly accused Scholz of opening a "Pandora's box" and easing Moscow's isolation by speaking by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin last month. Scholz has also been among the more cautious NATO leaders concerning possible alliance membership for Ukraine.
It is also Scholz's first Ukraine visit since the months following Russia's nearly full-scale invasion, which started in February 2022.
In a post on X, he pledged that "Germany will remain Ukraine's strongest supporter in Europe."
"At the meeting with President Zelenskiy, I will announce additional weapons worth 650 million euros, which are to be delivered in December," he added.
Scholz and Zelenskiy jointly visited wounded Ukrainian soldiers.
Dpa quoted Scholz as lauding the Ukrainian people's defense of their country "in a heroic manner against Russia's merciless war of aggression" for more than 1,000 days. "Ukraine can rely on Germany. We say what we do. And we do what we say."
A German Defense Ministry spokesperson said the aid bound for Ukraine this month includes IRIS-T air-defense systems, Leopard 1 tanks, and weaponized drones. It will also include winter equipment and handheld weapons, the spokesperson said.
Scholz's main conservative rival in the upcoming German elections, Friedrich Merz, has accused him and his Greens partners of being slow and overly cautious in their government's supply of aid to Ukraine.
SEE ALSO: Exclusive: Belarus State Firm Hosted Russian 'Filtration' Camp Where Ukrainians Were Allegedly TorturedWestern supporters led by Washington last month gave permission for Ukraine to use their weapons for long-range strikes even deeper inside Russia, adding a new wrinkle to the conflict that Kyiv had long desired.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of Scholz's visit that it had no "expectations" and it was part of Berlin's "continuing...line of unconditional support to Ukraine."
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to take swift and dramatic action to end the Ukraine war but provided no details.
Sources told RFE/RL's Hungarian Service last week that Trump had held multiple conversations with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban since winning the U.S. presidential election in early November and the two had discussed possible routes toward ending the conflict.
Orban has consistently criticized EU and U.S. policies since Russia's unprovoked invasion began in February 2024, and launched his own uncoordinated "peace mission" with visits to Kyiv, Moscow, and Beijing in July -- a move that infuriated Brussels.