Chancellor Scholz irritated by German president’s aborted Ukraine visit

Germany’s president would have liked to visit Ukraine and the fact that he was not received there was “irritating,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz told RBB public radio, adding that he had no immediate plans himself to visit Kyiv.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, long a proponent of reconciliation with Russia, said on Tuesday Kyiv did not want him to visit. A Ukrainian official subsequently denied that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had rejected a visit offer from Steinmeier.

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“The president would have liked to go to Ukraine and would have visited the president,” Scholz said. “It would have been good to receive him. I don’t want to comment further. It is a little irritating, to be polite about it.”

Asked if he himself planned a visit to Kyiv, Scholz said he was in more regular contact with Zelenskiy than almost any other Western politician.

What next?

Western countries believe Russia’s initial war aim was to quickly topple the government in Kyiv, but Moscow has had to abandon that goal after armored columns bearing down on the capital were repelled. Russia withdrew from northern Ukraine at the start of April and has said its focus is now on the areas claimed by the separatists in the east.

In recent days, a new Russian column has been moving into eastern Ukraine near the town of Izyum to the north of the Donbas. The fall of Mariupol could free up Russian troops in the south of the Donbas to mount an assault on Ukrainian forces from two directions.

Claiming its first big prize in eastern Ukraine could also give Russia a stronger position to negotiate at any peace talks.

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