Friedrich Merz begins unannounced Kyiv visit as Russia continues strikes on Ukraine’s capital – Europe live | Europe
Opening summary
Good morning and welcome to our Europe live blog, I’m Frances Mao.
We begin in Kyiv where one of Ukraine’s strongest European backers, the German chancellor Friedrich Merz, has arrived this morning in an unannounced visit.
Soon after his arrival, the Russians struck the city’s North Bridge, just a 20-minutes drive from the central railway station where Merz had pulled into.
Sirens have rung out across the city and smoke can still be seen rising from the Dnieper River bridge. Yesterday, Russian drones also struck another bridge, causing injuries; the Kremlin has stepped up attacks on the capital this year and Ukrainians say they are steeling for another autumn blitz ahead of a tough winter.
“Ukraine is facing decisive weeks. That is why I travelled to Kyiv today with the message: you can rely on us,” Merz has written on X. He’s brought several German defence manufacturers with him and is expected to meet with Zelenskyy.
Elsewhere across the continent today, Bosnians are voting in a national election likely to determine the course of their strained EU accension path so far.
And I’ll also bring you an update on the rent protests we saw across Spain’s largest cities yesterday.
Key events
Earlier, while visiting the science academy in Kyiv targeted by Russian drones on Monday, Merz decried the “war crime”.
“These barbaric attacks on the civilian population of Ukraine must stop. These are daily war crimes,” the German chancellor said.
The National Academy of Science in Kyiv is just a few hundred meters from the German Embassy.
The German leader also issued a comment to Putin, telling him to “end this senseless war” and that “we are ready to talk”.
Zelensky noted that the strikes on Kyiv had continued even amid the chancellor’s visit.
Pro-Ukraine and EU Latvian PM wins parliamentary vote
In Latvia, the small republic right on Nato’s eastern flank, Prime Minister Andris Kulberg’s centre-right party has won the most support in the country’s parliamentary election.
The vote on Saturday had been dominated by concerns over neighbouring Russia as well as cost-of-living and economic issues- and saw about 51% turnout.
Kulberg’s United List party – which won 42 of the 100 seats in parliament, an unprecedented result- will now go about forming a coalition to govern.
Kulberg became prime minister in May after a political crisis over the handling of stray drones suspected to have come from Ukraine, brought down the governing coalition that was in place.
Kulberg, then in opposition, then secured parliamentary approval to lead a new coalition.
He has vowed to push on with his pro-Ukraine and EU direction. Latvia, a small country with a 1.8 million population, which borders both Russia and Moscow-allied Belarus has always supported Ukraine against Russia’s invasion.
Germany is Ukraine’s largest donor and has sent Kyiv more than €43.3 billion ($48.8 billion) since the war began, along with equipment and weapons.
Zelenskyy thanked Merz for visiting the Ukrainian capital describing him as “A leader of a country that consistently demonstrates leadership in protecting the lives of Ukrainians from Russian strikes.
We are grateful for all the support, and today we are preparing decisions to give us in Ukraine, and all of Europe, greater capabilities to defend ourselves. There will be important agreements between Ukraine and Germany. Russia must be stopped together.”
At least one killed in strikes on Kyiv, Kharkiv, Sumy, Dnipro, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia
Zelenskyy in the past hour has been tweeting about the strikes and the German chancellor’s visit, thanking Merz for his support.
On the Kyiv strike this morning he confirmed it had been a drone on the Northern Bridge (Pivnichnyi Bridge).
He noted too a drone attack on a pharmaceutical warehouse in Sumy which killed one person and a strike on a communications facility in Dnipro.
“Overnight, the Russians launched 135 attack drones against Ukraine, more than 50 of them jet-powered. Kyiv, the Dnipro, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Sumy, and Zaporizhzhia regions came under attack.
“And among the main targets of these terrorists, as always, are ordinary residential buildings, critical infrastructure – everything that makes up normal everyday life.
“This week alone, the Russians have used more than 1,900 attack drones, 1,700 aerial bombs, and 25 missiles against Ukraine. More than 800 of the drones were jet-powered, and Russia must be held accountable for this escalation.”
Merz travelling to Kyiv this weekend is an important display of support, especially as the bombardments intensify.
As Pjotr Sauer also noted in his report:
Western diplomats say publicly that they intend to remain in Kyiv, mindful that leaving would hand Moscow a propaganda victory and risk creating the impression that Ukraine was being abandoned.
However, privately two senior diplomats said contingency plans were being drawn up to relocate embassies to Lviv or eastern Poland if Russia began deliberately targeting foreign missions.
“The situation is obviously deteriorating fast,” the diplomat said.
Kyiv suffering sharp escalation in strikes
Pjotr Sauer
My colleague Pjotr Sauer, the Guardian’s Russian affairs reporter in Kyiv this week, has described the onslaught of around-the-clock attacks we’re seeing on the Ukrainian capital:
Kyiv is entering its most difficult period since the early days of the invasion, as intensifying Russian attacks reshape everyday life in a capital that Moscow is seeking to plunge into darkness.
For weeks, the main worry in the capital had been the coming winter, when Russia is expected once again to try to plunge Ukraine into darkness and cold. But a sharp escalation in Russian attacks has left many residents feeling that some of the hardship they had been bracing for is already here.
“The capital is in a very dramatic situation. And it’s no longer possible to pretend that we can live now as we do in peacetime,” the Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said on Friday. “The enemy is tearing Kyiv apart.”
This week alone, Russian missiles and drones have struck offices, datacentres, a school and hospital and one of Kyiv’s main bridges. Moscow has also started its attacks on Ukraine’s energy, targeting a thermal power plant and other energy facilities, leaving several neighbourhoods without power and water by morning.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy underlined the apparent shift in Russian tactics in an interview with the Financial Times this week, saying Vladimir Putin had recently ordered his commanders to abandon the rules of war.
“They want Ukrainians to leave the capital … and show that if you don’t have the capital you don’t have the country,” Zelenskyy said in separate comments to reporters.
Until recently, Kyiv had retained a deceptively normal rhythm, while cities closer to the front, including Kharkiv and Dnipro, absorbed the brunt of daily missile and drone attacks. Now, residents joke grimly that the balance is beginning to shift, with those cities at times feeling safer than the capital.
The city is confronting a particularly dangerous combination of an acute shortage of Patriot interceptors for ballistic missiles and a new generation of faster, jet-powered Russian drones that are harder to shoot down.
Kyiv is racing to fast-track a new generation of interceptor drones capable of taking down the jet-powered models. Several are already in use, according to three defence industry sources, though they said it could still take weeks or months to deploy them at a scale sufficient to provide meaningful protection for the capital.
Merz tours science academy targeted in Monday daytime strike
Some more pictures through as the visit unfolds – the leaders have also toured the site of the National Academy of Science which was struck in a daytime attack just on Monday. Two people were killed.
The 19th-century building, in the heart of Kyiv, stands close to the German embassy, the National Opera, St Volodymyr’s Cathedral and several government buildings.
The Russians attacked the building, a civilian science institution, on Monday while staff were working inside. My colleague Pjotr Sauer in Kyiv reported from the scene earlier this week.
You can see Merz and his delegation assessing the damage and detritus outside the building.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, who greeted Merz at the station this morning, had this week accused Russia of cynicism for targeting a scientific institution during the working day.
“Russia is deliberately expanding the boundaries of what it believes the world will tolerate. Every attack left without a strong response only encourages the next one,” he said.
On Saturday, Russia’s foreign ministry had issued the message saying it was carrying out “mass retaliatory strikes” on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, urging foreign nationals and diplomats to leave the country. It last issued a similar warning in May.
The Russians have increasingly been using ballistic missiles on Ukrainian cities in recent months – which are near impossible to defend against without Patriot interceptor missles. The US continues to ignore Ukraine’s desperate please for new stocks.
Meanwhile Ukraine since the summer has also escalated its drone strike campaign targeting Russian oil refineries and energy sites as well as Wildberries warehouses– the Russian equivalent of Amazon – bringing the war home to consumers.
Merz in Ukraine to finalise drone deal, boost aid
This is the German chancellor’s second visit to Ukraine during his 18 months in office so far.
Merz is facing significant domestic pressure back home with record-low ratings and major losses against his party in three recent regional elections.
But along with the leaders of France, the UK and Poland, with whom he last travelled to Ukraine in May 2025, he has been among the most staunch of Ukraine supporters and has pushed to increase aid as well as work on defence co-operation with Zelenskyy’s government.
He is expected to announce in his visit today the release of €1 billion in military aid and €350 million for repairs in Ukraine’s energy sector – the sites of which have been heavily targeted by Russian strikes and need to be restored going into winter.
He is also expected to finalise a deal for drone production between German and Ukrainian manufacturers. He’s been accompanied by several German CEOs including from Siemens Energy, Hensoldt, Diehl Defence, Quantum Systems and other firms as well as his Economic Affairs Minister Katherina Reiche.
In his X post this morning he’d repeated the pledge “You can count on us” adding: “Germany’s security also depends on the outcome of this war. That is why we are helping out of our own self-interest as well.”
Earlier this week, Zelenskyy had also said that Ukraine would close a deal soon on the joint production of drones, missiles and their software with Germany.
Merz has met Ukraine’s President Voldymyr Zelenskyy at the main war memorial on the Maidan in Kyiv.
Both men lay tributes at the central site, which features thousands of Ukrainian flags and framed portraits of the soldiers who’ve been killed in the war that’s gone on for more than four-and-a-half years.
Some pictures from the scene just now:
Attack on Kyiv as Merz arrives shows upsurge in Russian attacks on capital
The North Bridge – one of several connecting central historic Kyiv to the residential suburbs across the Dnipro river -was struck not long after the German chancellor’s arrival in the Ukrainian capital.
The incident has been confirmed by Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko this morning who wrote on Telegram: “Impact on the road surface of the Northern Bridge. Emergency services are heading to the scene.”
There’s no word of casualties yet. Pictures and footage being shared online appears to show a missile slamming into the cable bridge and the resulting fireball explosion.
It follows strikes by the Russians on the South Bridge on Friday and Saturday, and several earlier this week that had shut three of the city’s six road bridges over the Dnipro.
Merz has arrived in the thick of it, as Kyiv, which was largely spared direct aerial strikes in the first years of the war has increasingly come under attack since April.
The Russians have launched strikes day and night, hitting schools, petrol strations, government buildings and churches as well as rails and communication infrastructure.
Opening summary
Good morning and welcome to our Europe live blog, I’m Frances Mao.
We begin in Kyiv where one of Ukraine’s strongest European backers, the German chancellor Friedrich Merz, has arrived this morning in an unannounced visit.
Soon after his arrival, the Russians struck the city’s North Bridge, just a 20-minutes drive from the central railway station where Merz had pulled into.
Sirens have rung out across the city and smoke can still be seen rising from the Dnieper River bridge. Yesterday, Russian drones also struck another bridge, causing injuries; the Kremlin has stepped up attacks on the capital this year and Ukrainians say they are steeling for another autumn blitz ahead of a tough winter.
“Ukraine is facing decisive weeks. That is why I travelled to Kyiv today with the message: you can rely on us,” Merz has written on X. He’s brought several German defence manufacturers with him and is expected to meet with Zelenskyy.
Elsewhere across the continent today, Bosnians are voting in a national election likely to determine the course of their strained EU accension path so far.
And I’ll also bring you an update on the rent protests we saw across Spain’s largest cities yesterday.
