Chancellor Scholz does not want to go to Kyiv for a photo appointment: “I will not line up”

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Chancellor Olaf Scholz

Photo: Omer Messinger/Getty Images

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) only wants to travel to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv if specific things need to be settled.

“I'm not going to join a group of people who do a quick in and out with a photo op.

But if, then it's always about very specific things, "he said in a question and answer session on the RTL television station.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) was the first member of the government to travel to Kyiv last week since the beginning of the war, shortly before the President of the Bundestag Bärbel Bas (SPD) was there.

Opposition politician Friedrich Merz (CDU) has also been to Ukraine.

Heads of state and government from many other countries have already visited Russia's attacked Ukraine to demonstrate their solidarity with the country.

A planned trip by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier was canceled at short notice by the Ukrainian side.

For a while, this was considered an obstacle to a chancellor's trip.

In the meantime, however, the irritations have been cleared up.

ani/dpa