President’s trip to Ukraine: Honesty would be true support

During his visit, Federal President Steinmeier continued to pledge Germany’s support to Ukraine. That’s good and right. But what Steinmeier still doesn’t say weighs more heavily.

“We will continue to support Ukraine in the future – economically, politically and militarily,” said the Federal President in Kyiv today. Those are the right words in the right place.

However, it should come as no surprise that the Ukrainians initially did not want the Federal President in the country. Because it would be desirable that Steinmeier would also find the right words at home, in Germany, namely really self-critical.

Honest self-reflection would be appropriate

As a reminder, in April Steinmeier said that as foreign minister he had stuck to the Nord Stream pipeline for too long and that he had made a mistake in assessing Putin.

detained? wrong? Wouldn’t it be more honest to say: I, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, was once Gerhard Schröder’s head of the Chancellery and then for years represented and defended the gas policy of the current Gazprom lobbyist?

As foreign minister of two federal governments, I ignored the warnings of all Eastern European countries for years? And that of many Russia experts?

In 2014, after the annexation of Crimea and the occupation of eastern Ukraine by Russia, I spoke out in favor of more dialogue with Moscow and against stricter sanctions and: was that a fatal signal to the Kremlin?

Made mistakes for decades

Such a commitment would be a sign to finally be honest, it would be a sign to the SPD, to Olaf Scholz, to Angela Merkel, ultimately to all of us. Not only has our economy lived well with the gas business for decades, many here, like Foreign Minister Steinmeier, have made the basic mistake of notoriously equating the former Soviet Union with Putin’s Russia.

It is correct: Ukraine is an independent state and must be supported, as President Steinmeier made clear today. However, if you are really serious about the turning point in time, please don’t hide the mistakes of the old days any longer.