In the midst of diplomatic ballet, the United Kingdom spoke of “Munich scent” in the air, in reference to the agreement which ratified the annexation of the former Czechoslovakia by Hitler in 1938.
© AFP
“He (Putin) may just call off his tanks and we all go home, but there’s a hint of Munich in the air coming from some Westerners,” Ben Wallace said.
Britain’s defense minister annoyed Ukraine by referring to a ‘scent of Munich in the air’ over the Russian-Western crisis, referring to the deal with Nazi Germany that failed to prevent the Second World War.
‘Not the best time’
Russia can ‘throw an offensive at any time”, with around 130,000 of his soldiers positioned along the Ukrainian border, estimated Ben Wallace, who went to Moscow on Friday to plead for a de-escalation, in an interview published by the Sunday Times.
“He (Putin) may just call off his tanks and we all go home, but there is a scent of Munich in the air coming from some Westerners,” he added.
The Munich Agreement of 1938 allowing the German annexation of the Sudetenland, a territory located east of Germany, in the former Czechoslovakia, has gone down in history as a symbol of the diplomatic capitulation of European democracies in the face of to Nazi Germany the year before the outbreak of war.
The Ukrainian Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Vadim Pristaiko, criticized the use of these terms in a context particularly tense between Russia and the West.
“Now is not the best time for us to offend our partners around the world, reminding them of this act which did not buy peace but on the contrary, it bought war,” the diplomat told the BBC.
“There is panic everywhere, not only in people’s minds, but also in the financial markets,” he added, warning that it “harms the Ukrainian economy at about the same level as people leaving the embassy.
NEXT VIDEO
Fears of a “tragic” outcome
British Minister for Northern Ireland Brandon Lewis explained that his colleague Ben Wallace wanted to make “the comparison between the diplomatic attempts at the approach of the Second World War and the diplomatic attempt that we are all making now”. around Ukraine.
As the Second World War approached, “there were many diplomatic effortspeople thought there was progress but it was not the case”, explained Mr. Lewis on “SkyNews” Sunday.
The United Kingdom hopes for a “diplomatic outcome” but “something much more tragic could happen”, he worried.
NEXT VIDEO
Moscow, which has already annexed Crimea in 2014, denies any aggressive intentions towards Ukraine, but conditions de-escalation on a series of requirements, in particular the assurance that Kiev will never integrate NATO. A condition that Westerners consider unacceptable.
Many rounds of talks recent days have seen no progress towards a resolution of the crisis, which Westerners describe as one of the most dangerous since the end of the cold war three decades ago.
In Moscow, the British Minister of Defense received an icy reception. “Alas, the level of our collaboration is almost zero and will soon pass the zero bar and become negative,” said his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu on Friday.
The meeting the day before in Moscow between Foreign Minister Liz Truss and her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov had also ended in harsh words, Mr. Lavrov comparing their exchanges to a “conversation between a deaf and a mute”.
“Concerned by the worsening situation in Ukraine,” Ben Wallace announced on Twitter on Sunday that he was canceling a long family weekend abroad.
Last August, former British foreign secretary Dominic Raab was widely criticized for staying on holiday in Crete as Kabul fell to the Taliban. He had been dismissed from diplomacy soon after.