Ukraine urges Germany to act after president admits Russia errors

Ukraine's envoy to Berlin, Andriy Melnyk, has again urged Germany to support Kiev more strongly in its war with Russia in the wake of the mass killings in Bucha.

Melnyk and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have singled out German leaders for criticism in the past two days, saying they were too eager to appease Russia over the past decades and that this policy had helped lead to the Russian invasion.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who was foreign minister from 2005 to 2009 and from 2013 to 2017, on Monday for the first time admitted his own mistakes in his approach towards Russia.

"We continued to believe in bridges that Russia no longer believed in and that our partners warned us about," Steinmeier said.

Melnyk applied more pressure on Steinmeier on Tuesday, telling broadcaster Deutschlandfunk that "like many of my compatriots, I would like the president not only to show remorse, but also to demand that the federal government, as head of state, learn the lessons from the massacre in Bucha and from other atrocities that we are now witnessing day and night in Ukraine."

In concrete terms, this means tougher sanctions and an energy embargo, among other things, the ambassador said.

Steinmeier was also on the airwaves on Tuesday, telling public television channel ZDF: "I am sure that there will be no return to normality in a Russia under [President Vladimir] Putin."

Putin is, he said, an "entrenched warmonger." Steinmeier admitted he was among those who had "misjudged" Putin.

Berlin has been accused of being the main obstacle in the way of an EU embargo on Russian energy imports, although other countries also oppose such a step. Germany relies on Russian gas and oil for a large share of its energy.

Germany turned its back on decades of restrictive arms export policies to send weapons directly to Ukraine, but has not supplied all the equipment that Kiev has reportedly asked for, including tanks and fighter planes.

It has, however, recently agreed to the delivery of German-made tanks that are currently used by the Czech military.

As the war goes on, the pressure is growing on the government to provide heavier military equipment to Ukraine.