German justice minister offers Kiev help for Ukrainian entry into EU

German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann offered his Ukranian counterpart Deniys Maljuska help with Ukraine's entry into the European Union, in a meeting between the two ministers in Kiev on Friday.
Buschmann said Germany wanted to support the country in "meeting the rule of law standards in the process of admission to the European Union."
With its expertise, the German politician said his country could help Kiev achieve necessary reforms and fight against corruption, which continues to be a problem for Ukraine, even in wartime.
Shortly before the German politician's arrival, it became apparent that €7 million ($6.9 million) intended for the purchase of protective waistcoats for the Ukrainian army had been embezzled.
It was the German minister's first visit to Ukraine since war began on February 24.
"We stand by Ukraine today and we will continue to do so in future," the politician said upon arrival at Kiev's main railway station.
Before his meetings with government representatives, Buschmann was shown the damage done by the war in the capital city.
In the afternoon, Buschmann briefly met Kiev's mayor Vitali Klitschko, before being hurriedly led away in the wake of air raid alarms.
Maljuska said he appreciated that German government members were "not afraid to come here" even after the Russian attacks of the past weeks.
Another focus of the conversation between the two ministers was the international prosecution of war crimes.
Buschmann emphasized that investigations into Russian war crimes committed since the invasion of Ukraine began were of great importance, saying that Ukraine's struggle was also Germany's struggle.
"Only if the community of states puts Russia in its place, do freedom and security have a future in the world," the German politician had said during a visit to the United Nations in October.
The German judiciary has experience in prosecuting war crimes committed abroad.
In January, a German court sentenced the former head of interrogation at a Syrian prison to life imprisonment, for allegedly being responsible for the torture of at least 4,000 people and the death of at least 27 prisoners.
German police have already taken several hundred testimonies from Ukrainian refugees about war crimes committed by Russian military.
The Ukrainian government and the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Ukrainian Centre for Civil Liberties are advocating for a special tribunal to prosecute Russian crimes committed in Ukraine.
Kiev is also soliciting international support for setting up a register of war damages and making Russia pay for these.
The executive director of the Centre for Civil Liberties, Sasha Romantsova, said at a meeting with Buschmann that Ukrainians believed in victory in this war "because we know we can trust each other".
The centre had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with the now dissolved Russian human rights organization Memorial and the imprisoned Belarusian human rights lawyer Ales Bjalyazki.