German Chancellor Friedrich Merz Visits Kyiv, Stands With Zelenskyy at Damaged National Academy of Sciences

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz made an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Sunday, appearing alongside President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a heavily damaged building of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in a high-profile show of German support.

Images published by Reuters and other wire services showed Merz and Zelenskyy at the academy’s Presidium building, the institution’s main administrative headquarters, at 54 Volodymyrska Street in central Kyiv. The site was hit in a Russian strike on Sept. 28.

The academy said the attack killed two people. In a Sept. 29 statement, it said, “The Russian strike has claimed the lives of two people.” Early official casualty reports in the immediate aftermath varied, with some citing one death and six to seven injuries before later updates.

Zelenskyy has said the academy building was specifically targeted, describing the strike as intentional. That claim has not been independently verified in the assignment material, but it framed Sunday’s visit as more than a damage inspection: it was also a political statement at a prominent civilian and academic site in the heart of the capital.

The symbolism was hard to miss. Merz, a conservative chancellor from Germany’s CDU-led coalition who took office this year, traveled to Kyiv during active air-raid alerts and used the stop at one of Ukraine’s leading scientific institutions to underscore Berlin’s backing for the country. Germany is one of Ukraine’s most important European supporters, and visits by senior Western leaders to Kyiv are closely watched as signals of political commitment.

According to AP, Merz reaffirmed that support during the trip. “If Russia is not stopped, its war machine will sooner or later turn against us,” he said. Speaking to Zelenskyy, he added: “You can continue to count on our help.”

Zelenskyy, in remarks reported by AP from his post on X, cast the visit in similarly collective terms, writing: “Russia must be stopped together.” He also said he appreciated that Merz went to the site despite air-raid alerts, describing the gesture as a sign of support from Germany.

That support carried extra weight at the National Academy of Sciences, one of Ukraine’s central scholarly institutions. Founded in 1918, the academy is a pillar of the country’s scientific life, making the Sept. 28 strike not only a deadly hit on a civilian building but also a blow to a prominent national institution.

By choosing the academy’s damaged headquarters as a stop on his first known visit to Kyiv as chancellor, Merz and Zelenskyy turned a scarred building into a diplomatic backdrop. The message was less about military developments than about visibility: Germany’s leader standing in person at a struck Ukrainian scientific institution, beside Ukraine’s president, while the war and air-raid warnings continued.