German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier canceled his planned visit to Kyiv for security reasons, Reuters reports.

An official in his office said that the security authorities of Germany and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs advised him not to go to Ukraine, but assured that the visit would soon be postponed.

Although the German president plays a largely ceremonial role, Steinmeier sparked a diplomatic row between Kyiv and Berlin in April after he said he had conveyed to the Ukrainian government his desire to visit the Ukrainian capital, only to be denied.

The Bild daily, which first reported the situation, quoted a Ukrainian diplomat as saying that “we all know here about Steinmeier’s close relationship with Russia… He is not welcome in Kyiv at the moment. Let’s see if it will change.”

Before the information appeared in the press, the German president said that he was wrong about Vladimir Putin’s “imperial madness” and called his support for the Nord Stream project a mistake.

Then Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that he would not visit Kyiv either, until the Ukrainian authorities also received the President of Germany.

However, in early May, Steinmeier’s office reported that he had been on the phone with Volodymyr Zelenskyi, and the two heads of state resolved the dispute that arose due to Kyiv’s refusal to receive him for a visit.

In late August, Steinmeier, a practicing Christian, urged believers to distance themselves from the Russian Orthodox Church because of its staunch support for Putin’s war of aggression.

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