Germany will deliver in February to Ukraine, the scene of a crisis between Westerners and Russians, a “field hospital”, announced Saturday the German Minister of Defense, Christine Lambrecht.
“I can understand that people want to support Ukraine, that’s exactly what we are already doing,” the minister assured us in an interview published in the Sunday version of the Die Welt newspaper.
“Thus, a complete field hospital will be delivered in February, with the necessary (staff) training,” she announced, specifying that the cost for Germany would amount to 5.3 million euros.
“We have also already provided respirators,” said Ms. Lambrecht, adding that Germany was “already treating seriously injured Ukrainian soldiers in (the) hospitals of the Bundeswehr”, the German army.
“So we are on the side of Kiev. We must now do everything in our power to defuse the crisis,” she sums up.
Germany, however, rejected the idea of delivering arms to Ukraine, saying it would only escalate tensions.
According to Ms. Lambrecht, “weapons deliveries would not currently contribute” to defusing the crisis, and this position has “consensus within the federal government” led by Olaf Scholz.
The Minister also issues a warning to the Russians regarding Mali.
The arrival of mercenaries from the Russian Wagner group in Mali “will have consequences”, warns Ms. Lambrecht.
“Moscow will not be able, by sending mercenaries, to encourage the West to withdraw almost automatically wherever Russia does not want to see us. We will not give in, we will not make things so easy for the Russians, ”she asserts.
The German minister also warns the junta in power in Mali that “if we want the Bundeswehr to stay in the country, we must also ensure that the conditions are good”.
“Our soldiers must be able to move freely and be protected as best as possible,” said Ms. Lambrecht, deeming it unacceptable “that the elections be suspended for five years or that it (the junta) collaborates with mercenaries who have been guilty of serious violations of human rights”.
Mali refused at the beginning of the week, in retaliation for the sanctions decided at the beginning of January by the organization of West African States, the overflight of its territory to a plane of the German army which was going to Niamey.