The Ukrainian government’s rejection of a visit to Ukraine by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is making waves across all parties. Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck finds clear words, but also warns for a de-escalation of the topic.
The criticism of Kiev’s no to a visit by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to Ukraine continues. “The Federal President is Germany. And that’s why his invitation by President Selenskyi is an invitation from Germany,” said Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens) to the newspapers of the Funke media group (Thursday). “Unfortunately, I have to say it this way: the Ukrainian side made a diplomatic mistake.” Zelenskyj said on Wednesday evening that there had been no requests from the Federal President for a visit.
Steinmeier wanted to go to Kyiv with the presidents of Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. However, the Ukrainian government refused Steinmeier’s visit and instead invited the Federal Chancellor. According to information from Warsaw, the visit was organized by Poland on a joint initiative.
Zelenskyj: Ukraine has not received a request from Steinmeier
According to the Ukrainian agency Unian in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said: “I as President and our office have not received any official inquiries from the Federal President and the Office of the Federal President regarding a visit to Ukraine.”
When asked whether he or Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) would travel to Ukraine, Habeck said: “Now we should all make sure that we solve the problem and don’t escalate it. That’s what phones were invented for.” The entire government is in constant contact with the Ukrainian government.
The FDP foreign policy expert Alexander Graf Lambsdorff complained that the Ukrainian side had behaved incorrectly in diplomatic terms. As Federal President and with his office, Steinmeier is a constitutional body. If Steinmeier couldn’t go to Kyiv but Chancellor Olaf Scholz accepted the invitation, “it would be a double affront to the office of Federal President,” he told the editorial network Germany (RND, Thursday). However, he can understand that some people in Kyiv do not want to receive Gerhard Schröder’s former chancellery minister. “Steinmeier’s Russia policy is one of the main reasons for our current diplomatic and energy difficulties.”
Melnyk invites Olaf Scholz to visit Ukraine
The Ukrainian Ambassador Andriy Melnyk, however, denies that the trip failed because of Steinmeier’s longstanding role in German Russia policy. “There is no question that Mr. Steinmeier can visit Ukraine in the future,” Melnyk told the Süddeutsche Zeitung (Thursday). “It’s not about whether his previous distancing from the most serious mistakes in Russia policy was felt to be sufficient.” At the moment, however, the priority is for Chancellor Scholz to visit Ukraine, “because only he and the traffic light can make the necessary decisions about new weapons and further punitive measures against Moscow,” said Melnyk.
The parliamentary manager of the left-wing faction, Jan Korte, favors a different path. “In this case, the Chancellor should stand by the Federal President – yes, he also proposed it – and make it clear that he will only travel to Kyiv together with Steinmeier or not at all,” Korte told RND. The “extremely undiplomatic behavior” of the Ukrainian government does not come out of nowhere, but has increased in recent weeks despite great help and support from Germany. “And with all due respect for the special situation on the part of Ukraine, we can’t deal with each other like that, and we have to make that clear.”
Source: Stern
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