25 October 2022, Tuesday, 09:48 203

German President arrives in Kyiv

Редактор: Roman Vaniyan

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has arrived in Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

This follows from the information provided by Spiegel, the European Pravda online media outlet reports.

The meeting of the heads of the two states should take place in the evening. Steinmeier arrived in Kyiv by train on Tuesday morning.

Steinmeier initially wanted to meet with Zelenskyy in Kyiv last Thursday. However, he postponed the trip because the Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry of the Interior, as well as the Federal Police and other authorities, apparently had security concerns.

According to the Office of the Federal President, Steinmeier and Zelenskyy now want to make a joint appeal to German cities and municipalities with a call to establish new partnerships with Ukrainian municipalities in the near future and help the people living there to survive the winter.

After the cancellation of the visit last week, the presidents of Ukraine and Germany held a telephone conversation, Zelenskyy said that Steinmeier's visit to Ukraine was being prepared.

As earlier reported, in the spring, additional tension arose in the relations between Kyiv and Berlin due to the refusal of Steinmeier's visit - the Ukrainian side refused to receive him due to long-term close relations with Russia, inviting the federal chancellor instead.

In April, the German publication Bild reported that the President of Germany wanted to visit Ukraine on April 13, but was refused due to President Zelenskyy's reluctance to see him.

The publication's sources said that this was due to Steinmeier's close ties with Russia in the past, in particular with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. In addition, in the past, Steinmeier actively supported the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, with the help of which Russia wanted to deprive Ukraine and Poland of natural gas transit.

On April 12, Steinmeier said that the Ukrainian authorities consider his visit to Kyiv undesirable.

In May, Zelenskyy invited Steinmeier to Kyiv, and a few days later, Steinmeier accused Putin of murders, lies, and perfidious distortion of history.