‘No room for old dreams’: German president on ties with Russia

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who hails from a wing of Germany's Social Democrats that long argued for closer economic ties to Moscow to anchor it within a Western-oriented global system, said Russia's Feb. 24 invasion had brought a change in era.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has caused an "epochal break" in German ties with Moscow and the war has shattered former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev's dream of a "common European home", Germany's president said on Friday.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. (REUTERS)

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who hails from a wing of Germany's Social Democrats that long argued for closer economic ties to Moscow to anchor it within a Western-oriented global system, said Russia's Feb. 24 invasion had brought a change in era.

"When we look at the Russia of today, there is no room for old dreams," Steinmeier said in the prepared text of a national address. "Our countries are standing against each other today."

"It has also plunged us in Germany into another time, into an insecurity we thought we had overcome: a time marked by war, violence and flight, by concerns about the expansion of war into a wildfire in Europe," he added.

Steinmeier made a surprise visit to Kyiv on Tuesday, when he vowed further support to Ukraine, especially in the area of air defence. The visit was his first since Russia invaded Ukraine.