He said the 24 February invasion had come like a thunderclap. In a speech in Davos, Scholz tried to dismiss claims that he did not understand the scale of the issues at stake. ‘It must not be that at the end of the war the world sees Germany as a complete brakeman just because we are unable to organise,’ said Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann. If you are on the frontline, it probably matters little.
Whether the failure to achieve this yet is due to bureaucratic inertia, cynical procrastination or a reflection of the depleted state of the German armed forces is hard to unravel.
#Little hope endings free
Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, chair of the Bundestag Defense Committee and a member of the Free Democrat party, said: “It must not be that at the end of the war the world sees Germany as a complete brakeman and loser just because we are unable to organise and communicate.”Įarly in the conflict Germany proposed quickly supplying Ukraine with heavy weaponry in a “ring system” – whereby eastern European countries such as Poland and the Czech Republic would provide Soviet-era tanks to Ukraine, with these being replenished by modern German Leopard tanks. Poland has also heavily criticised Germany’s slowness, and within Germany the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has come under attack for appearing not to want either side to emerge victorious from the war, a stance Scholz denies. “No matter what the Russian state does, there is someone who says: ‘Let’s take his interests into account’,” said Zelenskiy. I don’t understand why this is so difficult.” The president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, sensed German reticence stemmed from a desire to rebuild relations with Putin once the war ends. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, adopted an ironic, almost uncomprehending tone at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week about the slowness of arms deliveries: “We are pursuing this with strategic patience. Some leaders, including UK foreign secretary Liz Truss, have argued sanctions on Russia cannot be lifted until Putin’s troops leave Ukraine completely. Truss has argued that any backsliding would result in a more prolonged and painful conflict.Ī man pushes his bike past a destroyed Russian tank in Trostyanets, north-eastern Ukraine. She has strong allies in eastern Europe, and the Baltics, but not in Paris or Berlin. In a reference to the tensions, the UK foreign secretary Liz Truss, a staunch war hawk, warned the West against backsliding and appeasement, insisting the need to supply arms was urgent in a speech in Sarajevo: “What we cannot have is any lifting of sanctions, any appeasement, which will simply make Putin stronger in the longer term.” She insists private sanctions on Russia cannot be lifted until Putin has completely left Ukraine, and his army is irreversibly weakened. The disputes come as some influential US voices, from veteran diplomat Henry Kissinger to the New York Times, have urged Ukraine to realise it may have to lose territory to Putin. Since the beginning of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, Israel has taken a neutral stance and refused to supply weapons to Ukraine.
Spike missiles are produced in Germany with Israeli technology under an Israeli licence. There were also US-sourced reports that Israel had rejected a US request to allow Germany to send Spike anti-tank missiles to Ukraine. Quite what this decision means in practical terms is disputed. The commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said the delivery of weapons could not be delayed: “We are in great need of weapons that will make it possible to hit the enemy from a long distance.”Ĭiting its sources in Nato, the national news agency, Deutsche Presse Agentur, reported that alliance members have informally agreed not to supply certain weaponry to Ukraine, fearing Russia could see the delivery of tanks and combat aircraft as the west entering the war and take retaliatory measures. Kyiv is suffering serious losses due to the absence of long-range weaponry. The immediate point of conflict between Ukraine and some of its allies focusses on the supply of weaponry to Ukraine, and the heavy weather Germany seems to be making in setting up an elaborate chain that would see the country supplying armaments to its Eastern neighbours – principally Poland and the Czech Republic – that would in turn send armoury on to Ukraine.
The row is leading to disputes over the arming of Ukraine, the feasibility of enforcing a Russian oil import embargo and whether Kyiv will have to accept a further loss of territory at the end of the war as the price for peace.
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