Merkel says she has recovered from shaking bout after drinking water

BERLIN - German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was seen shaking when she met visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy earlier on Tuesday (June 18), said she had since drunk water and was feeling better.

She said she was just a bit dehydrated in the heat.

Merkel looked as if she were struggling to stand up while she and Zelenskiy listened to national anthems during military honours upon his arrival.

"Since then I have drunk at least three glasses of water - I obviously needed that and so I'm doing very well now," Merkel said during a joint news conference with Zelenskiy in Berlin.

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Zelenskiy, 41, made light of Merkel's uneasy spell, joking that he would have come to her rescue if necessary.

"She was standing next to me and completely safe," he said.

Merkel, frequently called the European Union's most influential leader and the most powerful woman in the world, turns 65 next month.

She has said she will leave politics at the end of her current term, in 2021.