Different information
Kyiv: No official request for Steinmeier’s visit
04/14/2022 01:03 am
Has Ukraine explicitly canceled a trip by Federal President Steinmeier – or has his office made no request at all? Different accounts of the diplomatic scandal came from Kyiv and Berlin. The fact that Steinmeier’s visit was prevented not only for logistical reasons can be heard from President Zelenskyj’s speech in the evening.
Berlin and Kyiv provide different information about the canceled trip to Ukraine by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday evening that there had been no official request from Steinmeier for a visit. This was not done by Steinmeier’s office either, he explained. His chief of staff Serhiy Leshchenko had previously emphasized in an interview with CNN that Zelenskyy had not canceled any visits by the Federal President.
However, people who are familiar with the processes describe the processes differently. Accordingly, the initiative that Steinmeier should travel to Kyiv with four Eastern European presidents on Wednesday came from Polish President Andrej Duda. Steinmeier tried unsuccessfully to call Selenskyj on Monday. On Monday evening, the Ukrainian Presidential Office then informed Warsaw that they had reservations about Steinmeier’s participation – about which the German side was then informed. Even the hint that this could trigger a political scandal was unsuccessful.
On Tuesday afternoon, when Steinmeier visited Duda in Warsaw, the Ukrainian presidential office then wrote to the German ambassador in Kyiv that they were against Steinmeier’s participation in the Eastern European quartet’s visit for logistical reasons. The Federal President then publicly expressed his disappointment in Warsaw. Steinmeier had long pursued a pro-Russia course throughout his political career and admitted last week that he was wrong about the Russian president.
Zelenskyj praises supporters “from the beginning”
Chancellor Olaf Scholz was “irritated” on Wednesday that Steinmeier was unable to travel to Kyiv with the presidents of four Eastern European countries on Wednesday. “The Federal President would have liked to go to Ukraine,” said Scholz to rbb-Inforadio. “That’s why it would have been good to receive him.”
In his evening video speech, Zelenskyj left right at the beginning to visits from Poland and the Baltic States. Your countries are friends of Ukraine, emphasized the President – which is probably to be understood as a dig at Germany. “Those who supported us from the start. Who didn’t hesitate to give us arms. Who didn’t doubt whether sanctions should be imposed.”
Scholz emphasized on Wednesday that Germany would continue to provide massive support to Ukraine in the war against Russia and announced further arms deliveries. However, a government spokesman rejected a rapid EU oil embargo against Russia.