(Warsaw) German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, criticized for the relations maintained in recent years with Russia, said on Tuesday that he had considered visiting Ukraine with other heads of state, but had suffered an end of non- receive from Kyiv.
Posted at 12:21 p.m.
This trip was to take place with the presidents of Poland and the Baltic States: “I was ready to do it, but apparently, and I must take note of it, it was not wanted in Kyiv”, affirmed Mr. Steinmeier during of a trip to Warsaw.
The aim of this visit was “to send a strong signal of common European solidarity with Ukraine”, he regretted.
The daily Picture was the first to report this snub, quoting in particular a Ukrainian diplomat with very severe remarks towards the president from the Social Democratic (SPD) camp: “We all know Steinmeier’s close relations with Russia here… He is not not welcome in Kyiv at the moment. We’ll see if that changes. »
In recent weeks Mr Steinmeier, who was twice Angela Merkel’s foreign minister, has come under criticism, as has the former conservative chancellor, for his supposed lack of firmness on the Russia.
He even admitted at the beginning of April that he had made a “mistake” by supporting the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, between Russia and Germany.
“My Nord Stream 2 membership was clearly a mistake. We were clinging to bridges that Russia no longer believed in and that our partners had warned us against,” the president said, according to comments reported by German media.
Mr. Steinmeier was counting on the fact that “Vladimir Putin would not accept the economic, political and moral ruin of his country for his imperial folly”. “Like others, I was wrong,” he concluded.
The gas pipeline supposed to double Germany’s supply capacity for Russian gas was finally suspended indefinitely by Berlin in February.
The Social Democrats now in power have been strong supporters of a rapprochement with Moscow.
The current Chancellor Olaf Scholz is also under pressure from his coalition partners, in particular environmentalists, who are urging him to commit more firmly to Ukraine’s side, in particular by delivering heavy weapons to Kyiv.