French President Emmanuel Macron visited Berlin's symbolically important Brandenburg Gate with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday as the two leaders met to discuss bilateral ties and the future of the EU.
Mr Macron said he intended to show “full support for Ukraine” as he and Mr Scholz approached around 200 people gathered nearby.
Many in the crowd were draped in Ukraine's blue and yellow national colours and chanted “Mariupol”, the south-eastern Ukrainian city devastated by Russian strikes.
The Brandenburg Gate, which was illuminated in Ukraine's national colours, historically formed a central part of the wall that separated East and West Berlin, symbolising the Cold War's “Iron Curtain” that divided the world into capitalist and communist blocs.
Some Ukrainians in the crowd criticised the French and German governments for being too close with Russia, which invaded its neighbour on February 24.
“I would like to see more courage,” Tania, a 40-year-old doctor who has lived in Germany for 25 years, told AFP.
“I understand [Mr Macron and Mr Scholz's] fear for their own citizens, but we mustn't underestimate Russia,” she said and added that Moscow could attack Poland or the Baltic states next.
“People in the West are scared because of soaring prices and the fear of a third world war.”
Mr Scholz in particular has come under fire for arms deliveries to Ukraine that have been deemed insufficient and Germany's reliance on Russian energy imports.
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An injured Ukrainian service member sits at a field hospital inside Azovstal steel works in Mariupol, Ukraine. Reuters -
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends a meeting in Kyiv with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra. Reuters -
Ukrainian servicemen study a Swedish shoulder-launched weapon system during a training session near Kharkiv. AP Photo -
Russian emergency personnel clear debris inside Mariupol's drama theatre. AFP -
Ukrainian servicemen study a map near Kharkiv. EPA -
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends an online meeting with the Saratov region's acting governor, Roman Busargin, in Moscow. AP -
Belgian soldiers take part in a Nato military exercise near Munster, Germany. Getty -
Ukraine's prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova, left, speaks with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, right, during her visit to mass graves in Bucha, Ukraine. EPA -
A guard of honour stands at attention during the funerals of Sgt Olexandr Moisenko and Sergiy Turpetko in Lviv, Ukraine. Getty -
Plumes of smoke rise above the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol amid Russian shelling. AFP -
US President Joe Biden signs into law a measure making it easier for Washington to send weapons and supplies to the government in Kyiv. Bloomberg -
A Ukrainian soldier fires with a mortar, in the Kharkiv region. Reuters -
The Eiffel Tower is lit up in blue and yellow, the national colours of Ukraine, to express solidarity with its people at the request of the French Presidency of the EU, in Paris. Reuters -
A Ukrainian Army tank drives over an infantryman during a training exercise near Kryvyi Rih. Getty Images -
A Ukrainian soldier rests in his room at a front-line field hospital near Popasna, Luhansk region. EPA -
Russian President Vladimir Putin lays flowers at the Memorial to Hero Cities at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier after the Victory Day military parade in Moscow. EPA -
Ukrainian refugees from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol are seen in a bus as they arrive at a humanitarian aid centre for internally displaced people, in Zaporizhzhia. Reuters -
A hotel complex destroyed by a Russian missile is pictured in Odesa, Ukraine. Reuters -
Maksym, 3, is photographed with his brother, Dmytro, 16, on top of a destroyed Russian tank on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine. AP Photo -
A video of a press conference from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol by Azov regiment servicemen Illia Samoilenko, right, and Sviatoslav Palamar, seen on a computer screen in Kyiv. EPA -
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy take part in a online meeting of G7 leaders in Kyiv. Reuters -
US first lady Jill Biden greets Olena Zelenska, wife of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, outside a public school in Uzhhorod, Ukraine. Reuters -
Irish singer and activist Bono, the lead vocalist of rock band U2, performs at a subway station that has been turned into a bomb shelter in Kyiv. AFP -
A boy looks out of a bus window as people evacuated from Mariupol arrive in Zaporizhzhia. AFP -
A night-vision image shows fire on Ukraine's Zmiinyi Island. Reuters -
Women sing the Ukrainian national anthem below the Euro Monument during a demonstration in Frankfurt, Germany. AP -
Emergency personnel at a school building hit by shelling, in the village of Bilohorivka, Luhansk. Reuters -
A man plays piano in an abandoned photo studio in Severodonetsk, eastern Ukraine. AFP -
A man and his son wait for an evacuation bus in Lysychansk, eastern Ukraine. AFP -
Volunteers deliver food supplies to residents, taken from the warehouse of a humanitarian aid distribution centre in Severodonetsk. AFP -
An unexploded ordnance on a road in Severodonetsk. AFP -
Galina Abdurashikova, 65, has been staying in an abondoned car in front of her apartment since her room was destroyed by shelling five days ago, in Severodonetsk. AFP -
A large hole at the site where a missile strike hit a residential area in Bakhmut, Donetsk region. Reuters -
A man searches for useful items inside his house after a missile strike in a residential area, in Bakhmut. Reuters -
Two men look at the damage after a missile struck a cement plant, in Bakhmut. Reuters -
Civilians attempting to leave Mariupol wait in line at a checkpoint near the temporary accommodation centre in Bezimenoye village. EPA -
Civilians who were evacuated from Azovstal, walk in the temporary accommodation centre in Bezimenoye village, near Mariupol. EPA -
A cyclist photographs the destroyed bridge over the Irpin river, in Irpin. Getty Images -
A residential area destroyed by Russian shelling, in Irpin. Reuters -
People with their luggage walk to a station to wait for the evacuation train heading to the west of Ukraine, in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region. EPA -
A volunteer shapes metal plates at a factory producing material for Ukrainian soldiers in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. AP -
Workers clean shattered glass and debris in front of a residential building next to a site of a Russian missile attack in the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa. AFP -
A Ukrainian Army tank moves towards a fron-tline position in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Getty Images -
Eugene Yevchenko cries as he bids farewell to his daughter Maria at a coach station in Lviv. Getty Images -
A child stands on a destroyed Russian tank near Makariv, Kyiv region. Reuters -
A Ukrainian national guard soldier mans a fighting position near the front line in Zelenodolsk. Getty Images -
Museum workers carry the sculpture of Ukrainian philosopher Hryhorri Skovoroda from the destroyed building of the Hryhoriy Skovoroda National Literary Memorial Museum in the village of Skovorodynivka, in Kharkiv Region. AFP
Meanwhile, Mr Macron on Monday said it would take “decades” for a candidate such as Ukraine to join the EU and suggested building a broader political club beyond the bloc that could also include Britain.
The idea immediately found favour with Mr Scholz, who described it as a “very interesting suggestion” that he was “very pleased” to discuss with the French leader.
Ukraine, which is battling the Russian invasion, is seeking EU membership and the European Commission has said it will respond to the request next month — a key step before the issue is taken up by member states.
But Mr Macron buried any hopes of swift membership for Ukraine, suggesting rather that it may be more efficient to consider building a wider club beyond the EU.
“I am saying this in all honesty — honesty that we owe to the Ukrainians,” Mr Macron said.
“We can have an accelerated process … to accept candidate status for Ukraine but we know that given our standards and the criteria, it would probably take decades for Ukraine to really join the European Union.”
But, noting the urgency of giving Ukraine and other EU hopefuls such as Moldova and Georgia a place in the heart of Europe, he called for the creation of a “European political community”.
Britain, too, could join this club, Mr Macron said.
“The United Kingdom decided to leave our European Union but it can have a place in this political community,” he said.
For countries that have already embarked on the membership route and which are close to joining, Mr Macron said he thought they “should go to the end of this road”.
But he said “others like Bosnia-Herzegovina which are much further or others in the western Balkans”, or those that “have embarked on the joining questions … sometimes from decades ago” may wish to consider joining a wider club instead.
Mr Macron said the bloc, “given its level of integration and ambition”, could not be Europe's only organising body.
“It is our historic obligation … to create what I would describe before you today as a European political community,” he said.
“This new European organisation would allow democratic European nations … to find a new space for political co-operation, security, co-operation in energy, transport, investment, infrastructure, the movement of people.”
