German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Tuesday that he had offered to visit Ukraine with other EU leaders, but Kyiv told him that his trip was "not wanted."⁣
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Steinmeier had been planning to make a joint visit to Ukraine with Polish President Andrzej Duda and their Estonian, Lithuanian, and Latvian counterparts to send "a strong signal of joint European solidarity with Ukraine."⁣
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Ukraine has previously been highly critical of the German president over his connections with Russia and the leading role he played as former foreign minister in improving relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.⁣
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The German newspaper, Bild, quoted an unnamed Ukrainian diplomat as saying: "We all know of Steinmeier's close relations with Russia here... He is not welcome in Kyiv at the moment. We will see whether that changes."⁣
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The snub comes as Steinmeier faces criticism at home and abroad for his years-long detente policy towards Moscow, which he has since admitted was a mistake.⁣
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Meanwhile, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is under fire for not yet having traveled to Ukraine himself, unlike British PM Boris Johnson and EU leader Ursula von Der Leyen. ⁣
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