German Chancellor Olaf Scholz refused to go to Kyiv because shortly before that the Ukrainian authorities refused to receive German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in the capital. Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk called Scholz an "offended liver sausage".
He stated this in a comment to Spiegel.
"Playing offended liver sausage doesnʼt sound very stately. This is the most brutal war of annihilation since the Nazi attack on Ukraine, it is not a kindergarten", Melnyk said.
Before that, Scholz said that he still considered "a very significant event" that Steinmeier did not want to be seen in Kyiv.
"This is a deterrent. This cannot be done", Scholz said in an interview with the German public television company ZDF.
Steinmeier wanted to visit Kyiv with the presidents of Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, but his visit was canceled at the last minute. The reason for this was that Steinmeier had close ties with Russia for a long time and lobbied for the construction of Nord Stream-2. President Volodymyr Zelensky then stated that "we are not a country for tragic selfies, but we have a real war". Therefore, people need to come with specific offers of help.