German Chancellor Olaf Scholz reiterated Monday that he will not visit Kyiv because of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s rebuke of German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, even as Scholz’s main political rival makes plans to visit the Ukrainian capital.
The cold shoulder was inappropriate, Scholz said during an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF, and meant he could not visit Kyiv and Zelensky.
Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, said in response that Scholz was “playing an offended liverwurst,” according to German media reports, referring to a type of sausage. The diplomat added that Russia’s war against Ukraine was a brutal attempt at annihilation and “not a kindergarten.”
The left-leaning chancellor decided not to head to Kyiv amid plans for a visit by German conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz. Merz’s Christian Democratic Union did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Scholz’s refusal to travel to Ukraine makes him an outlier after many prominent world leaders, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, have done so, said Ben Wellings, a professor at Monash University in Australia who researches European politics.
The chancellor’s Social Democrats have traditionally supported engagement with Moscow and the development of close economic ties. “There has long been this suspicion that the Germans are just too close to the Russians,” Wellings said, adding that Berlin’s heavy reliance on Russian fuel was partially responsible for those concerns. “There’s always been this thinking that basically trade should make people friends.”
He also noted that in the early days of the war, Germany had been reluctant to provide heavy weaponry and had offered helmets before the Feb. 24 invasion.
But Germany said last week it would send armored antiaircraft vehicles to Ukraine, upending its tradition of not sending such weapons to conflict zones.
Steinmeier in the past has accused NATO of provoking Russia, and he — like other German leaders from the left and right — championed the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline between Russia and Germany. The plan was scrapped in February, just before Russia invaded Ukraine, and Steinmeier has apologized for supporting the project.
Zelensky had repeatedly urged Germany to stop buying Russian natural gas, which it relies on heavily to heat homes. But as spring takes hold and the war drags on, much of Europe is moving quickly to wean itself off Russian fossil fuels. (Berlin recently signaled it would support a European Union plan to phase out Russian oil.)
President Biden has not visited Kyiv amid the conflict and does not have plans to, the White House has said, although Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have met with Zelensky in Kyiv. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), whose chamber will vote on a massive aid package for Ukraine, met with Zelensky in Kyiv on Saturday at the head of a delegation of other House Democrats.
Isaac Stanley-Becker contributed to this report.