Status: 01/24/2022 1:18 p.m
The issue of arms deliveries to Ukraine remains controversial: Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Asselborn is against it – the CDU foreign politician Hardt is in favor. Kiev’s Mayor Klitschko was disappointed by Germany’s reluctance.
Should Ukraine receive arms supplies in the conflict with Russia? The federal government is against it – and now Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn has also taken this side. “I think it’s really wrong to make it clear to people that this military superiority that exists between Russia and Ukraine, that it can now be balanced with weapons. I don’t think that’s working,” Asselborn said in the Deutschlandfunk.
In his opinion, a large majority in NATO wants to avoid a war – accordingly, one should not go into “war logic”. “Using the tools of diplomacy to make it very clear that a Russian invasion of Ukraine will not be accepted is the right way to go.”
Asselborn: The EU does not rely on military logic
Intervention in Ukraine will not be a victory for Russia. “We will then be thrown back years worldwide in terms of international diplomacy,” said Asselborn. “No one in the European Union relies on a military logic of its own. We have to keep a path free for diplomacy.”
The EU foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels today to discuss the tense situation between Russia and Ukraine. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wants to connect via video.
CDU politician for arms deliveries
But not everyone is against arms deliveries to Ukraine: CDU foreign policy expert Jürgen Hardt supports them. When it comes to arms support, Germany should give up “its strict anti-stance”, Hardt demanded in the “Welt”.
“I think the demand for defensive weapons from Ukraine in Germany should be examined and, in certain cases, given a positive decision,” said the foreign policy spokesman for the Union faction. Ukraine had repeatedly asked Germany for arms supplies. However, Berlin has repeatedly rejected this.
Estonia wants to hand over arms to Ukraine
The German government is examining a permit requested by Estonia for arms deliveries to Ukraine. This is necessary because the howitzers from GDR old stocks were first sold to Finland with conditions and then later given to Estonia from there. “So far no decision has been made,” said deputy government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann. “In this case, it’s not about German arms deliveries, but about arms deliveries from Estonia,” Hoffmann continued. The decision is still pending.
The federal government has not changed its stance on arms shipments, and especially the shipment of lethal weapons to Ukraine, Hoffmann said. “In view of the conflict in Ukraine, it does not authorize the delivery of lethal weapons of war.”
Klitschko disappointed with arms ban
The mayor of the Ukrainian capital Kiev, Vitali Klitschko, expressed his disappointment at Germany’s adherence to the arms supply ban. “This is failure to provide assistance and betrayal of friends in a dramatic situation in which our country is threatened by Russian troops on several borders,” Klitschko wrote in a guest article for “Bild”. Many in Ukraine wondered whether the German government was “on the side of freedom” or “on the side of the aggressor.”
Other states are already supplying arms to Ukraine. Yesterday, the United States sent the second shipment of arms to Ukraine as part of $200 million in military aid. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov wrote on Twitter that more than 80 tons of weapons had arrived from the United States. Other NATO countries, including Great Britain and the Baltic States, had recently announced arms deliveries to Ukraine.
Russia has massed around 100,000 soldiers on the border with Ukraine. The government in Moscow rejects the accusation that it is preparing an invasion and, for its part, is demanding security guarantees from NATO.