German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday criticized a diplomatic snub by Ukraine for his country's president and defended Berlin's record on delivering weapons to Kyiv amid tensions that have flared at a delicate moment in German policymaking on the war.
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany's largely ceremonial head of state, had hoped to travel to Ukraine on Wednesday with his Polish and Baltic counterparts. But he said Tuesday that his presence “apparently ... wasn't wanted in Kyiv.” The German newspaper Bild quoted an unidentified Ukrainian diplomat as saying that Steinmeier was not welcome at the moment, pointing to his close relations with Russia in the past.
