‘Not wanted in Kyiv’: Pressure mounts on Germany after Ukraine snub

Pressure was mounting on Germany to up its game over the war in Ukraine on Tuesday as Kyiv snubbed the country’s president and Chancellor Olaf Scholz was accused of a weak response to the crisis.

On a visit to Poland, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier admitted he had offered to visit Ukraine with other EU leaders, but Kyiv had told him he was not welcome right now.

“I was prepared to do this, but apparently, and I must take note of this, this was not wanted in Kyiv,” Steinmeier told reporters.

Steinmeier, a former foreign minister, has faced growing criticism since Russia invaded Ukraine in February for his years-long detente policy towards Moscow.

Scholz, meanwhile, was being panned for his own failure to visit Kyiv, as well as his hesitancy over providing heavy weapons to help Ukraine resist Russia’s invasion.

In the first trip by a high-level German government delegation since the start of the conflict, three top politicians were due to travel to Ukraine on Tuesday, a source told AFP.