It is unclear whether Olaf Scholz knew beforehand about the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Washington. Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit spoke only for himself when he admitted that he knew nothing about the trip. But what happened afterwards certainly came as no surprise to the chancellor: on Thursday morning the chancellor's office would have noted the usual suspects' demands that Germany now had to step up its arms deliveries. Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, chairwoman of the FDP's defense committee, presented this as well as CSU general secretary Martin Huber.

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