‘No room for outdated desires’: German president on ties with Russia | World News

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has precipitated an "epochal break" in German ties with Moscow and the struggle has shattered former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev's dream of a "widespread European house", Germany's president mentioned on Friday.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who hails from a wing of Germany's Social Democrats that lengthy argued for nearer financial ties to Moscow to anchor it inside a Western-oriented international system, mentioned Russia's Feb. 24 invasion had introduced a change in period.

"Once we have a look at the Russia of at present, there isn't any room for outdated desires," Steinmeier mentioned within the ready textual content of a nationwide tackle. "Our nations are standing in opposition to one another at present."

"It has additionally plunged us in Germany into one other time, into an insecurity we thought we had overcome: a time marked by struggle, violence and flight, by considerations concerning the growth of struggle right into a wildfire in Europe," he added.

Steinmeier made a shock go to to Kyiv on Tuesday, when he vowed additional assist to Ukraine, particularly within the space of air defence. The go to was his first since Russia invaded Ukraine.

Steinmeier had initially deliberate to go to Ukraine in April however Kyiv refused to welcome him then amid disquiet over his previous assist for a Western rapprochement with Russia. Kyiv and Berlin later patched up their disagreement.