Christian Democratic Union Party leader Friedrich Merz has slammed Kiev over its decision to snub the German president, calling it an “insult” with political and historical ramifications.
“I see what has transpired as an overly emotional reaction by the Ukrainian authorities which does not help either side,” Merz said in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.
The opposition politician also criticized German Chancellor Olaf Sholz, suggesting that his public statements run counter to his actions and contribute to growing discontent among his subordinates. “The chancellor has begun to receive criticism from his own ranks. By his behaviour, he is threatening the cohesion of the entire international community in relation to Russia,” Merz suggested.
The CDU head suggested that Scholz should have personally visited Kiev a long time ago, and clarified Germany’s position on the supply of weapons to Ukraine.
Bild first reported on Kiev’s snub of Steinmeier earlier this week. Steinmeier confirmed Tuesday that he was planning to visit Ukraine as part of a trip to other Eastern European countries including Poland and the Baltic States. “I was ready to do this, but apparently – and I have to take note of this – this was not wanted in Kiev,” the German president said in Warsaw.
Ihor Zhovka, the deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office, said Kiev would invite Steinmeier for a visit if and when Berlin makes a specific decision on the embargo of Russian energy supplies, and commits to providing Ukraine with additional military aid (including heavy weapons) and more economic assistance.
Steinmeier served as German foreign minister between 2013 and 2017 under CDU Chancellor Angela Merkel, formulating a policy in relation to Russia reminiscent of Willy Brandt’s Ostpolitik, while simultaneously supporting the coup which overthrew Ukraine’s democratically elected government in February 2014. In the spring and summer of 2014, he proposed round table talks to put a halt to the fighting in eastern Ukraine between Kiev forces and Donbass militias. In February 2015, with his assistance, Ukraine, Germany, France and Russia hammered out the Minsk Peace Agreements.
In 2016, amid Ukrainian intransigence in implementing the Minsk deal’s political portion – which would have required Kiev to provide the Donbass with autonomous status, Steinmeier proposed a workaround solution known as the ‘Steinmeier formula’. Volodymyr Zelensky initially approved the idea shortly after his election to the presidency in 2019, but backed away from the peace plan and reiterated Kiev’s hardline position on the Donbass following large scale protests by opposition forces and ultranationalist militants in Kiev.