Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has not yet made a decision on whether he will address the Rada, the Ukrainian parliament.

A spokesman for the federal government said on Friday in Berlin that Scholz had "kindly noted" the invitation from the Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament, Ruslan Stefantschuk, to address MPs in Kyiv.

If the Chancellor has travel plans, this will be communicated.

Scholz has not visited Ukraine since the war began.

Some time ago, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy invited the Federal Chancellor and Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to come to Kyiv.

Eckhart Lohse

Head of the parliamentary editorial office in Berlin.

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Stefantschuk met both Scholz and Steinmeier on Friday.

On Wednesday, the CDU chairman Friedrich Merz asked why Scholz did not receive Stefantschuk, even though he was visiting Berlin.

The government spokesman said it was not that a meeting had not been planned.

Rather, on Wednesday the search for a date for the meeting was still in the vote.

Stefantschuk, who spoke to members of the Bundestag's Europe and Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday, attended the Bundestag session on Friday.

Bundestag President Bärbel Bas (SPD) assured Ukraine of support.

"The German Bundestag stands firmly on the side of Ukraine," said the President.

"We will continue to provide your country with humanitarian and military, financial and diplomatic support." A sovereign Ukraine is part of a free, democratic Europe.

"Your country has the right to decide for itself about its future in freedom and peace," Bas said at the beginning of the session.

Berlin reluctant to join the EU

On Friday, too, the German government held back on calls by Stefanchuk and other Ukrainian politicians for the country to be given the status of a candidate for accession to the European Union.

The government spokesman said that the fact that Ukraine belongs to the "European family" has already been made clear.

However, an accession process is a lengthy process that must take place in peace.

Stefantschuk said he could imagine Zelenskyj visiting Germany.

"When victory approaches," Selenskyj will probably make visits to different countries and come to Germany for an official visit, Stefantschuk told the German Press Agency after the conversation with Scholz.

He had previously welcomed the Chancellor's announcement that Germany would supply heavy weapons to Ukraine so that it could defend itself against a Russian attack.

"It is very important for us that the ice is broken and Ukraine has the chance to get the newest and most modern weapons from Germany," said Stefantschuk.

However, he expressed the wish that the time between the decision and the delivery should be as short as possible.

The Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin, Andriy Melnyk, once again criticized the fact that the deliveries of German arms were taking place too hesitantly.

On ZDF, Melnyk welcomed Scholz's latest announcement to deliver heavy weapons on Friday, but added: "But if we're honest: 100 days of war - to this day not a single piece of heavy equipment has been delivered to Ukraine by Germany."