Dispute over Ukraine visit: Selenskyj: "I have not received any official request from Steinmeier"

There are differences between Berlin and Kyiv over the canceled trip to Ukraine by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday evening, according to the Ukrainian agency Unian in Kyiv: "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." in an interview with CNN that Selenskyj had not canceled any visits by the Federal President.

On the other hand, the incident is presented differently by persons entrusted with the process.

After that, the suggestion that Steinmeier should travel to Kyiv with four Eastern European presidents on Wednesday came from Polish President Andrej Duda.

Steinmeier tried unsuccessfully to call Selenskyj on Monday.

On Monday evening, the Ukrainian Presidential Office then informed Warsaw that they had reservations about Steinmeier's participation - about which the German side was then informed.

Even the hint that this could cause a political scandal was unsuccessful.

Habeck: "Steinmeier's unloading is Germany's unloading"

On Tuesday afternoon, when Steinmeier visited Duda in Warsaw, the Ukrainian presidential office informed the German ambassador in Kyiv in writing that they were against Steinmeier's participation in the visit of the Eastern European quartet for logistical reasons.

The Federal President then publicly expressed his disappointment in Warsaw.

Meanwhile, 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.

"Unfortunately, I have to say it this way: the Ukrainian side made a diplomatic mistake."

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 could not go to Kyiv, but Chancellor Olaf Scholz accepted the invitation, "that 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: Steinmeier's Russia policy was not the reason

The Ukrainian Ambassador Andriy Melnyk, however, denied that the trip had 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 is “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 director of the left-wing faction, Jan Korte, favors a different path.

"In this case, the Federal 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 understanding for the special situation on the part of Ukraine: This is not how we deal with each other, and you have to make it clear."