Germany will give Ukraine another €1.3bn ($1.46bn) in military and energy aid, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said after talks with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz who was in Kyiv on a surprise visit on October 4.

About €1bn ($1.12bn) of the money is military aid, much of it to finance interceptor drones designed to bring down Russia's jet-powered attack drones, and around €350mn ($393mn) is for generators and repairs to power infrastructure damaged by Russian strikes, Merz told a joint press conference, the Kyiv Independent reported.

Zelenskiy said on Telegram that the two sides had signed 15 agreements and documents, most of them on security cooperation, joint production, procurement and Ukrainian orders for German industry, with a combined value of more than €8.5bn ($9.5bn). They include an agreement on joint work against drones.

The unannounced visit comes as Russia steps up its campaign to freeze Ukraine before winter, and as air defence has become what Zelenskiy called Ukraine's "number one priority". Russia used more than 1,900 attack drones, 1,700 aerial bombs and 25 missiles against Ukraine over the past week, more than 800 of the drones jet-powered, he said.

"Ukraine is facing decisive weeks. That is why I travelled to Kyiv today with the message: you can rely on us," Merz wrote on X. "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."

Merz arrived by train with Economy Minister Katherina Reiche and the heads of German defence and energy companies including Siemens Energy, Hensoldt, Diehl Defence and Quantum Systems, Reuters reported. He visited the National Academy of Sciences building in central Kyiv, damaged by a Russian drone on September 28. "Mr Putin, stop this senseless war," he said there, according to dpa. "We are ready for talks... But these barbaric attacks on the civilian population of Ukraine must stop."

At the press conference Zelenskiy said Ukraine shoots down about 85-92% of regular Shahed drones but only 50-70% of the jet-powered versions, and that Russia holds about 100 ballistic missiles in reserve while producing 130-140 missiles a month, according to a summary by the Ukrainian news channel Blyskavka. Merz said Germany wants to speed up Ukraine's accession to the EU and will host the next meeting of the "coalition of the willing" in the winter.

Russia did not pause its attacks on Kyiv for the visit. A drone hit the city's Pivnichnyi (Northern) Bridge again on the morning of October 4, injuring two people, Ukrainska Pravda reported. Russian forces have attacked Kyiv's bridges six times in three days, and traffic has been restricted or stopped on five of the capital's six road bridges.

Merz is backing Kyiv from a weak position at home. The far-right AfD leads on 30% against 18% for his CDU/CSU in an INSA poll for Bild am Sonntag published on October 3, after the CDU crashed out of a second eastern state parliament in September. AfD co-leader Alice Weidel attacked the visit, saying Germany needs the money itself, TASS reported.

INSA voting-intention poll for Bild am Sonntag, October 3, 2026, 1,202 respondents surveyed September 28-October 2. Source: INSA

In Moscow, foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said of the visit that "murderers return to the scenes of their crimes", according to TASS.