German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier wanted to visit Kyiv, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky did not want to see him.
In the context of the war against Russia, Kyiv attracts world leaders like a magnet. From the beginning of the invasion, the Prime Ministers of Great Britain, Poland, Slovakia, Austria, the heads of the European Commission and the European Parliament have already visited the capital of Ukraine. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier also wants to go to Kyiv. But in Kyiv he was not particularly welcomed.
unwanted guests
Steinmeier first wanted to visit Kyiv, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky did not want to see him, Bild, German President Frank-Walter reported.
According to Bild from Ukrainian government boards, Steinmeier wants to visit Ukraine and go to Kyiv with government delegations from other EU countries on Wednesday, April 13.
However, according to the publication, at this point, President Volodymyr Zelensky did not want to meet with him in Kyiv because of the German politician’s close ties with Russia in the past.
“We all know about Steinmeier’s close relationship with Russia, which is also marked by Steinmeier’s formula. Now he is not welcome in Kyiv. Let’s see if this will change,” a Ukrainian diplomat in Kyiv told the publication.
According to Bild, a clear statement came from Kyiv to the federal president’s office that so far they are not ready for any meetings. However, the possibility of a future meeting can not be ruled out, they said in Kyiv.
In a comment to journalists in Warsaw, Steinmeier admitted that he was willing to go to Kyiv to “send a strong signal of European unity to Ukraine”, but “clearly I must admit that it does not like Kyiv.”
Pro-Russian politician
As a former foreign minister, Steinmeier maintains close ties, specifically with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Steinmeier has also been a vocal supporter of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and is considered the architect of the federal government’s Russia -friendly policy.
At the end of 2015, Steinmeier, who was then Germany’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, proposed his own version of the solution of one of the clauses of the Minsk agreements. This option, later called the “Steinmeier formula”, was thought of as a kind of compromise in the discussion of the order of implementation of the Minsk agreements.
The essence of the “Steinmeier formula” is that the Donbass should temporarily receive a special status at the time of local elections there. He can get this one on a permanent basis only after the results of these elections are recognized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Voting itself must also be controlled by the OSCE.
The terms “formula” were not spelled out in detail anywhere, and it eventually led to disagreements over its interpretation of Russia and Ukraine and its actual freezing. In Ukraine, the fulfillment of the conditions of the Steinmeier formula is equivalent to the surrender of state interests.
repented
With the outbreak of war in Ukraine, Steinmeier admitted his own mistakes in his policy with Russia.
“My commitment to Nord Stream 2 was a clear mistake. We clung to bridges that Russia no longer believed in and our partners warned us,” he said.
“We failed in creating a common home in Europe where Russia could be included. We failed in the strategy to include Russia in a common security architecture,” he added.
Prior to this, Steinmeier was criticized for not commenting on his own misconceptions, especially during his tenure as Foreign Minister. Now he says the responsibility for the war rests with Vladimir Putin.
Steinmeier explained that his assessment was that Putin would not allow the complete destruction of his country’s economy, politics and morals because of his imperial madness: “I was wrong, like everyone else.”
The German president stressed that in Putin-led Russia “no one will return to the status quo before the war.”
In addition, Steinmeier said Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov should appear before a tribunal for war crimes in Ukraine.
Source: korrespondent
