Germany’s defence chief Boris Pistorius arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday by train seeking to offer reassurances on Germany’s support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.

The German defence minister is due to hold talks with his Ukrainian counterpart as well as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. This is his second visit to the capital since he took on the role.

It’s a visit that comes after an increase in Russian air attacks on Ukraine and as Kyiv braces for an expected rise in strikes on the country’s energy facilities over the coming winter months.

It is Pistorius’s second visit to Kyiv since he became defence minister at the start of this year and it comes a day after the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, made an unannounced trip to Ukraine.

Berlin is the second-biggest supplier of military assistance to Kyiv after the US.