BUCHA (Reuters) -The highest ranking German official visiting Ukraine since the Russian invasion of February 24th, 2002 was Annalena Bock, Germany’s foreign minister. She arrived there on Tuesday.

Her first stop was Bucha, near Kyiv. Here, Russian forces are being accused of atrocities considered war crimes by Western countries.

Moscow denied the targeting of civilians as part of its invasion in Ukraine. It called claims that the forces killed civilians in Bucha during occupation a “monstrous fraud” meant to discredit the army.

Baerbock visited Kyiv as Berlin and Kyiv sought to mend relations after some wrangling about issues like Berlin’s refusal to provide heavy weapons to Ukraine, and earlier support for dialogue and negotiations with Vladimir Putin.

Baerbock, the general prosecutor of Ukraine, visited Bucha and stated that those who were responsible for Bucha’s murders should be tried.

She said, “That’s what we owe the victims.” These victims can be felt here so strongly, they could have been us.

Germany, which has supplied the most arms to Ukraine, has supported harsh sanctions on Russia. This includes a proposal for an oil embargo.

The ties were strained. Since Kyiv wasn’t willing to host Frank-Walter Steinmeier from Germany, Olaf Scholz, German Chancellor, was reluctant to visit Ukraine.

Steinmeier, Scholz’s Social Democrat ally is in disfavour in Kyiv, because he has been associated with an older German policy that pursued close trade ties and other ties to Putin’s Russia.

Andriy Melyk, Ukraine’s prominent ambassador in Berlin called Scholz’s reasons “offended liver sausage”, meaning that he behaved like a petulant child.

After being invited by Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian President, Scholz now plans to go on a vacation.

The Dutch foreign ministry reported that Wopke Hoekstra, Dutch foreign minister, also traveled to Kyiv on Tuesday with Baerbock.