Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky refused to receive German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Kiev because of links to the German-Russian Nord Stream gas pipeline.
The German head of state intended to visit the Ukrainian capital together with Polish President Andrej Duda, according to information from the Bild newspaper.
The idea had come from the head of the Polish government, who also wanted to bring together the presidents of the Baltic countries. The trip would take place this Tuesday (12), after Steinmeier’s trip to Warsaw.
However, according to Bild, Zelensky did not want to receive the German president, due to the links the politician had with the construction of Nord Stream.
Steinmeier himself acknowledged the error of assessment weeks ago, having defended as a minister the need to take the project forward.
The president of Germany was a member of the cabinet of Social Democrat Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, and later also joined the government of Angela Merkel, between 2005 and 2009, and between 2013 and 2017, as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Schröder and Russian President Vladmir Putin signed an agreement to build the first joint gas pipeline between the two countries, which came into operation in 2011.
The pact was signed in 2005, months before the then German chancellor left power, to later join Nord Stream’s board, a role he continues to exercise.
In 2011, after the first gas pipeline went into operation, there was an agreement for the construction of Nord Stream 2, to increase the direct transport of Russian gas to Germany through the Baltic Sea.
The second project was kept by Merkel and the coalition she ruled with, which included Steinmeier’s Social Democrats, despite the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014.
The current German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, suspended the construction permit for the second gas pipeline, shortly after the Moscow-ordered invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
However, Germany continues to refuse to apply an immediate embargo on gas imports from Russia, due to its strong dependence on the former Soviet republic’s energy source.
Ukraine and Poland openly criticize Berlin’s position, blaming Schröder, as responsible for the agreement, Merkel, for extending it, and Scholz, for not breaking it.
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