German President rejects Ukraine visit as he is ‘not welcome in Kyiv’

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German President, has rejected a possible visit to Ukraine

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German president visited Poland today, Tuesday, April 12. During a meeting with his Polish counterpart, Andrzej Duda, he assured him that he had no problem making a trip to Kyiv, but claimed that he is “not welcome”.

According to the German newspaper Bild, Duda suggested Steinmeier travel to the Ukrainian capital with the presidents of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia to send “a strong signal of joint European solidarity with Ukraine.” He said that he was willing to do it, but that it was “complicated, because they didn’t want him there”.

Steinmeier’s remarks follow the German publication quoting a Ukrainian diplomat as saying that he is not welcome in Kyiv at the moment because of his close relations with Russia in the past. 

Last week, the president had admitted to making some mistakes in his Russian policies while foreign minister. Andrij Melnik, Ukraine’s ambassador to Berlin, said Germany still has “too many vested interests” in Russia, such as its dependence on gas, oil, and coal, and that Steinmeier’s role was partly to blame.

“Steinmeier has been weaving a spider web of contacts with Russia for decades. Many of those who now rule in the German coalition are involved in this”, he declared.

Wolfgang Buechner, the deputy spokesman for the German Government, rejected those claims, but stated that they “understand the exceptional situation” in which Ukraine finds itself due to the Russian invasion.

Steinmeier was twice former Chancellor Angela Merkel‘s foreign minister, most recently from 2013 to 2017. Prior to that, he was former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s chief of staff. During that time, Germany maintained dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin and cultivated close energy ties, as reported by larazon.es.

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