German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Tuesday that he had offered to visit Ukraine with other EU leaders, but Kyiv had told him his trip was "not wanted."

Speaking during a visit to Warsaw, Steinmeier said he had planned to travel to Kyiv with the presidents of Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania this week "to send a strong signal of joint European solidarity with Ukraine."

"I was prepared to do this, but apparently, and I must take note of this, this was not wanted in Kyiv," he told reporters.

Germany's topselling Bild newspaper quoted an unnamed Ukrainian diplomat as saying: "We all know of Steinmeier's close relations with Russia here... He is not welcome in Kyiv at the moment. We will see whether that changes."