The former foreign minister is helping his predecessor, fellow party member and current Federal President.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin Former Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) has rejected criticism of President Frank-Walter Steinmeier from Ukraine and defended the cautious course of the government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) with regard to arms deliveries. In a guest article for the “Spiegel” Gabriel spoke of “targeted attacks on the German President” and accused the Ukrainian Ambassador Andriy Melnyk of “conspiracy theories”.
Melnyk’s assertion that during his active years as a politician, Steinmeier had “for decades created a spider’s web of contacts with Russia”, which has had an impact on the current government, insinuates that the former chancellery and foreign minister helped to organize the representation of Russia’s interests in Germany. “This is untruthful and vicious,” Gabriel wrote. Melnyk made a corresponding statement in the “Tagesspiegel” at the beginning of the month.
The Ukrainian ambassador responded to Gabriel’s post on Twitter with the words: “Your and your SPD cronies’ years of pro-Putin politics were particularly malicious, which brought about the barbaric war of annihilation against the state, nation, culture, against women and children in the first place .”
According to Gabriel, Steinmeier, as foreign minister at the time, together with then-Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU), “did more than anyone else in Europe” to support Ukraine. The ex-foreign minister referred, among other things, to the Minsk agreements, which were intended to end the conflict in Donbass.
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He defended Chancellor Scholz’s cautious course on arms deliveries. “Leadership in Europe also means being aware of the consequences of an escalation of this war.” It is correct that the German government can only deliver heavy weapons to Ukraine in coordination with the United States. Using the same arguments as the German Federal Chancellor, the USA very consciously weigh up what kind of military support is possible and sensible, and where the limit to active participation in the war against Russia is crossed.
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