Since June, the intensity of Russian attacks on Ukrainian territories has increased significantly, leading to a large number of civilian deaths. June 2025 recorded the highest civilian casualty since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war in February 2022. As per numbers by the UN Human Rights Mission in Ukraine, 232 people were killed and 1,343 were wounded.
On 30 June, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul travelled to Kyiv to reiterate Germany’s military, financial, economic and humanitarian support for Ukraine. “In Ukraine, it will be decided whether our Europe remains a place where freedom and human dignity hold sway, or becomes a continent on which violence can be used to redraw borders,” said Mr. Wadephul.
This follows visits by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Berlin in May and German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius to Kyiv in mid-June. Mr. Pistorius announced a total German military aid worth €9 billion for 2025.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Bundestag on July 9 said that all diplomatic means to resolve the Russia-Ukraine war had been exhausted. “When a criminal regime openly questions another country’s right to exist with military force and sets out to destroy the political order of freedom on the entire European continent, the federal government I lead will do everything in its power to prevent this,” said Mr. Merz.
