Ukraine rejects German President Steinmeier’s planned Kyiv trip, report says

Frank-Walter Steinmeier planned to travel to the Ukrainian capital on Wednesday to express solidarity with the government after Russia’s invasion
But Zelensky’s administration told Steinmeier that he wasn’t welcome amid his pro-Moscow stance, Bild reported

Ukraine

Bloomberg

Published: 1:08pm, 13 Apr 2022

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German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier wanted to travel to Kyiv but his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky’s government let him know that his visit wasn’t welcome, Bild newspaper reported.

Steinmeier planned to travel to Kyiv on Wednesday as a signal of solidarity with the Ukrainian government after Russia’s invasion, Bild reported.

“I was prepared for it,” the newspaper cited him as saying in Warsaw on Tuesday. “But apparently, and I have to take this on board, that wasn’t desired in Kyiv.”

The president’s office didn’t immediately respond when contacted for comment.

Steinmeier has been criticised by Ukrainian officials for his past support for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany and for his role when foreign minister of encouraging reconciliation and dialogue with Moscow.

In a rare admission, Steinmeier gave a television interview earlier this month in which he said that he shouldn’t have advocated for Nord Stream 2 and was wrong to have overlooked the protests of Germany’s neighbours, including Poland.

He and other German officials had failed in their policy toward Russia and President Vladimir Putin over the past two decades, and “like others, I was wrong,” he said.

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It’s unclear how the snub to Germany’s highest-ranking official will go down with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the head of government and a fellow Social Democrat.

Steinmeier was re-elected by a special assembly to a second term just two months ago on the eve of Russia’s invasion, when he won plaudits for a speech calling on Putin “to loosen the noose around Ukraine’s neck.”

But as Germany has seen to be a block on European sanctions on Russian energy and slow to respond to Kyiv’s demands for weapons, the president has been singled out by Ukraine for criticism.

For Steinmeier, the “relationship to Russia was and is something fundamental, even holy,” Andrij Melnyk, Ukraine’s ambassador in Berlin, said last week. For decades, Steinmeier has “woven a spider’s web” of pro-Kremlin contacts, he said.

While formally the head of state, the president has largely representative and ceremonial roles. Steinmeier served two stints as foreign minister under Chancellor Angela Merkel and before that was chief of staff to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

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