The head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kouleba, accused Germany on Saturday of “encouraging” Vladimir Putin, after Berlin’s refusal to deliver weapons to Kiev, which fears a Russian invasion.
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Russia has deployed tens of thousands of its troops to the Ukrainian border, leaving Westerners fearful of an invasion.
In this context, the United States, the United Kingdom and the Baltic States have announced the shipment of weapons to Ukraine, in particular anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles.
For its part, Germany said on Saturday that it would deliver a “field hospital” to Ukraine in February, while rejecting the idea of sending arms to this former Soviet republic.
“Today, the unity of the West with regard to Russia is more important than ever”, reacted on Twitter Mr. Kouleba.
“The German partners must stop undermining unity with such words and actions and encourage Vladimir Putin to launch a new attack against Ukraine,” he insisted.
Ukraine is “grateful” to Germany for the support already given, but “its current statements are disappointing”, added Mr Kouleba.
Germany has already supplied respirators to Ukraine and seriously injured Ukrainian soldiers are being treated in German hospitals, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said in an interview published in the Sunday version of the Die Welt newspaper on Saturday. .
But “weapons deliveries would not currently contribute” to defusing the crisis, she stressed.
While denying any attack plan, Russia insists that a de-escalation requires written guarantees for its security, in particular on Ukraine’s non-membership of NATO.
German admiral ordered to explain himself after controversial remarks on Russia
The head of the German Navy Kay-Achim Schönbach will have to explain himself after having described, among other things, as “inept” the intentions attributed by the NATO allies to Russia to invade Ukraine, it has been said. learned Saturday from the Ministry of Defense.
What Vladimir Putin wants “is to be respected,” Vice Admiral Schönbach said according to a video circulating on the internet, filmed during a think tank meeting held on Friday in New Delhi.
“It’s easy to give him the respect he wants, and probably deserves as well,” he adds. The idea that Russia wants to invade part of Ukraine would be, according to him, “a nonsense”.
These statements “do not correspond in any way to the position of the German Ministry of Defense”, developed one of its spokespersons, contacted by AFP.
The vice-admiral will have to “take a position”, in other words, explain himself “to the chief of staff of the armies”, the highest ranking in the hierarchy of the Bundeswehr, he adds.
The statements of the head of the Navy come in the midst of a Russian-Western crisis around Ukraine.
Intense diplomatic efforts are currently being deployed on both sides to prevent the situation from degenerating, while tens of thousands of Russian soldiers are still massed on the Ukrainian border.
After initially posting a tweet stating that his remarks were his own, Mr. Schönbach apologized.
He thus described his declarations as “unthoughtful”. “There is nothing to quibble about: it was clearly a fault,” he wrote.
According to information from Der Spiegel, the remarks of this soldier with a hitherto irreproachable career have greatly irritated even the highest levels of the German government, led by the Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht organized a videoconference in the morning with Chief of Staff Eberhard Zorn to define how to deal with this case, according to the magazine.