Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Schmyhal on Sunday thanked the help provided by Germany to his country, but urged Berlin to assume greater leadership in the European Union (EU) for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
“I thanked the German president for the solidarity and support received from Germany,” Schmyhal said on his Twitter account, after holding an hour-long meeting with the German head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, as part of the visit to Berlin.
Schmyhal, who was received with military honors by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, also thanked Germany for welcoming nearly a million refugees from his country since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24.
Ukraine expects to receive next week a new batch of five billion euros of financial and military aid promised by the EU, recalled Schmyhal, who considered that Germany should assume a greater leadership role to promote the reconstruction of his country.
The meeting between the Ukrainian prime minister and the German president served to put an end to bilateral differences, after Steinmeier himself gave up traveling to the Ukrainian capital last April when they told him from kyiv that they did not want his presence.
The criticisms of the German president were linked to his previous functions at the head of the Chancellery, in charge of the Social Democratic Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, and of Foreign Affairs, under the mandate of the conservative Angela Merkel, stages in which Germany’s energy dependence on the relationship with Russia was consolidated.
After intense diplomatic efforts, such differences were deemed overcome, followed by a trip by Scholz to kyiv, together with French President Emmanuel Macron and then Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi.
Germany is the main contributor of military and financial aid to Ukraine from EU partners, but Scholz has often been criticized for his lack of determination or slowness in materializing that support.
Source: TSF
