Ukrainian official denies that Zelenskiy declined Germany’s Steinmeier’s invitation to visit

Serhiy Leshchenko, an assistant to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s, disputed to CNN that Zelenskiy had turned down a visit by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, on Wednesday.

Steinmeier said that he had planned to visit Kyiv with his Polish peer, and the presidents of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, in order to send a signal depicting Solidarity with Ukraine.

Zelenskiy had refused Steinmeier’s plans to visit, due to his tight ties with Russia in recent years, and his years of support for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which was supposed to increase the supply of Russian gas direct to Germany, but was later cancelled.