Status: 04/13/2022 07:13 a.m
After their trip to Ukraine, three leading traffic light politicians have called for a speedy oil embargo. After the cancellation of a visit by Federal President Steinmeier, Ukraine has now invited Chancellor Scholz. Criticism comes from the FDP.
After their visit to Ukraine, three leading German parliamentarians from the traffic light coalition of Germany and the EU called for further measures against Russia. “The EU should impose an oil embargo on Russia as soon as possible,” said Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael Roth.
“That would be a very important signal because it affects Russia’s main source of income,” Roth continued. A quick EU decision could be combined with a transition phase like the import ban on Russian coal. The federal government considers it possible to phase out Russian oil by the end of the year.
Hofreiter: Oil embargo “within a few weeks” possible
Roth, together with the Chair of the Defense Committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, and the Chair of the European Committee, Anton Hofreiter, traveled to western Ukraine on Tuesday for a meeting with Ukrainian parliamentarians and returned to Poland late in the evening.
Strack-Zimmermann also spoke to the Reuters news agency in favor of an oil embargo as soon as possible. “It can be done within a few weeks because there are other suppliers,” said Hofreiter. “The coal embargo decided by the EU also provides for a transition phase that is far too long and must be implemented more quickly. Otherwise, we will continue to finance Putin’s war machine,” said the Green politician.
“Ukraine needs heavy weapons”
The three parliamentarians also spoke out in favor of supplying heavy weapons to Ukraine. “Ukraine needs heavy weapons, and fast,” Roth told Reuters.
These are the highest-ranking German politicians who have visited Ukraine since the start of the war seven weeks ago. The heads of government from Poland, Great Britain, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Slovakia have already traveled to Kyiv to strengthen Ukraine’s back in the fight against the Russian attackers. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was there on Friday.
Kyiv invites Scholz to visit
According to the wishes of the Ukrainian government, Chancellor Olaf Scholz is now also to travel to Ukraine. After the visit of German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier was rejected by the Ukrainian government, Scholz was invited to Kyiv.
“We also communicated that my President and the government would be very happy if Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Kyiv,” said the Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin, Andriy Melnyk, to ProSieben and SAT.1. The visit should be about how Germany can help Ukraine with heavy weapons in the fight against Russia.
Sharp criticism from Kubicki
After the affront to Steinmeier’s visit, the deputy FDP chairman Wolfgang Kubicki ruled out a trip from Scholz to Kyiv for the time being. “I can’t imagine the chancellor of a government supported by the FDP traveling to a country that declared our country’s head of state an undesirable person,” said Kubicki.
He has every understanding of the political leadership in Ukraine. The country is fighting for its survival. “But everything has its limits. I don’t think that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was well advised not only to reject the offer of such a visit from Germany.”