The announcement of help for the Armed Forces of one of the leaders of the “green”, preparing to head the government, stirred up German politicians.
Robert Habek, co-chairman of the German Green Party, whose candidate has a real chance of becoming the next chancellor of Germany, “detonated a bomb in Ukraine,” writes Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung.
He called the refusal of the FRG government to export weapons to Ukraine wrong and allowed the supply of defensive weapons to the Ukrainian army. Correspondent.net tells the details.
“Ukraine feels left alone”
Germany should provide Ukraine with weapons for a defensive war in Donbass, said one of the two leaders of the German Union 90 / Greens party Robert Habek, who visited as part of a delegation to the front-line zone. Khabek added that the visit “was impressive”, but noted that he had advocated the transfer of arms to Ukraine before.
On May 25, representatives of the German parliament, led by Habek, accompanied by Deputy Commander of the OC Major General Eduard Moskalev and Director of the First Territorial Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Vasily Khiminets, visited the destroyed village of Shirokino in the Donbass.
Viola von Cramont-Taubadel, MEP and member of the EU Foreign Affairs Committee, has been in Ukraine and in particular in Luhansk and Donetsk regions many times. She initiated the introduction of green technologies: the construction of a biogas plant in Volnovakha and the construction of a wind power generating station near Shyrokyne.
“It is sad to look at the destruction caused by the war. It is a pity that the wind turbines that we saw from the roof of the house in Shirokino are now in the territory occupied by Russian troops and do not work,” said the MEP.
She said that the leaders of the EU countries should collectively consider how to effectively help Ukraine, namely how to provide Kiev with defensive weapons.
Nuclear Power Ukraine is not an absurd idea. Welt
But it was Khabek’s statement that became an information bomb. While visiting the front line in eastern Ukraine, in an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio station, he spoke about the need to supply German defensive weapons for the Ukrainian army.
“In my opinion, it is difficult for Ukraine to refuse weapons for defense, for self-defense, in defensive weapons,” said Habek, who almost became the Green’s candidate for chancellor in the upcoming elections in Germany in the fall.
He noted that while Russia is deploying troops and distributing passports in Donbass, snipers are shooting at soldiers, and Crimea is still occupied, Germany is completing Nord Stream 2, and the ruling parties want to lift sanctions against Russia.
One of the Greens’ leaders said that Germany “needs to do something so that statements of support, about how Ukraine is fighting for its freedom, do not sound like mockery.”
“When another country is attacked, we have the opportunity to help. Perhaps it is worth saying that Ukraine is not only fighting for itself, but also protecting the security of Europe. If it loses, it will be an invitation for Russia to arrange escalation and other conflicts,” he added is he.
The politician clarified that the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, whom he met the day before, did not ask him to help with the weapon.
Office of the President of Ukraine
–
From the point of view of security policy, “Ukraine feels left alone,” the politician stressed.
“In a situation when it comes to protecting people’s lives, it is worth reconsidering the principled“ no. ”The trip to the contact line impressed me a lot, and also caused alarm. But the position related to supporting the Ukrainian army, protecting the lives of soldiers and, above all, civilians population, and with the fact that Germany, in my opinion, should contribute to this, I have already indicated before “, – said Habek later interviewed DW.
Controversy erupted in Germany
Habek’s words caused a storm of criticism in Germany, so that on the morning of May 26, he had to make additional statements, explaining what he meant when talking about defensive weapons.
We are talking about “night vision devices, observation devices, equipment for clearing the area from shells, equipment for transporting the wounded.”
“Russia would use arms supplies to Ukraine as an excuse to build up its troops in Crimea, in eastern Ukraine, and also along the Russian-Ukrainian border,” – quotes DW of the foreign policy expert of the parliamentary faction of the ruling CDU / CSU bloc in Germany, Jürgen Hardt.
This point of view is shared by Rolf Mützenich, chairman of the Social Democratic faction – the Conservative partners in the ruling coalition.
“Weapons are the last thing this region needs, they can only add fuel to the conflict, not defuse it,” says Dietmar Bartsch, leader of the post-communist Left Party faction.
But not only political opponents, but also some party members of Khabek, who enjoys unquestioning authority among the “greens”, reacted negatively to his proposal.
“The supply of weapons to Ukraine would violate our fundamental principle that we do not export weapons to areas of hostilities,” said the “patriarch” of the ecoparty, former chairman of the Greens, Jurgen Trittin.
The official representative of the German government Steffen Seibert, commenting on the statements of Habek, said that Germany remains true to the principle of banning the supply of weapons to regions where the war is being waged.
“We are pursuing a restrictive and responsible policy in the field of armaments and do not give permission for the supply of military weapons to Ukraine,” said Angela Merkel, a spokesman for the German Chancellor’s Cabinet.
Member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, former Vice-Chancellor and Foreign Minister of Germany Sigmar Gabriel noted that Habek is moving away from the agreement between the SPD and the Greens “to exclude the possibility of supplying weapons to areas of tension and crises.”
It is obvious that the members of the current ruling coalition who lose popularity to Greens in upcoming elections, take advantage of the situation to their advantage. In their statements, they hint that the eco-party has not yet “matured” to lead Germany.
However, Haber also has like-minded people. Thus, the director of the Center for Liberal Modernity, Ralph Fucks, considers the refusal to export arms to crisis regions an “apolitical excuse.”
Such “pseudo-neutrality”, in his opinion, creates an advantage for the aggressor.
“And the victim of aggression is thereby denied the right to defend himself. The supply of air defense systems, anti-tank weapons and reconnaissance equipment to Ukraine would raise the threshold of an attack for the Kremlin. This is called deterrence,” he said.
The fact of the discussion on the provision of weapons to Ukraine was supported by the deputy from the CSU Thomas Erndl. He proposes to rethink the Conservative course on this issue, since “the situation is different than it was in 2014.”
“We must monitor the stability of Europe as a whole. And the defense capability of Ukraine plays an important role in this. There should be no taboo on the supply of weapons,” Erndl said, noting that Europe’s restraint only provokes the Kremlin.
According to the Merkur edition, in recent years Germany has practically not supplied military equipment to Ukraine. The amount of such exports in 2018 and 2019 amounted to two million euros, while it was a question of sporting and hunting weapons.
In 2019, this corresponded to 0.03 percent of the volume of all German arms transfers abroad, which were approved by the Bundestag.
The exact figures for 2020 will be indicated in a report that the government intends to submit in June. The German Ministry of Economy responded to DW’s request that, according to preliminary data, in 2020 it issued a total of 63 licenses for the sale of hunting and sporting weapons to Ukraine in the amount of 3.5 million euros.
News from Correspondent.net in Telegram. Subscribe to our channel https://t.me/korrespondentnet
– .
