The chief of the German navy has resigned after saying the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, deserved respect, amid growing fears of an invasion of Ukraine and tensions between Berlin and Kyiv over weapons supplies.
Speaking at a thinktank meeting in New Delhi on Friday, vice-admiral Kay-Achim Schönbach said the idea that Russia wanted to invade Ukraine was “nonsense” and that all Putin “really wants is respect”.
“And my God, giving someone respect is low cost, even no cost … It is easy to give him the respect he really demands – and probably also deserves,” Schönbach said at the meeting, which was filmed, calling Russia an old and important country.
Russia has amassed tens of thousands of troops on Ukraine’s borders.
Schönbach conceded Russia’s actions in Ukraine needed to be addressed but predicted that Kyiv would never win back annexed Crimea from Moscow.
“The Crimea peninsula is gone, it will never come back, this is a fact,” he said, contradicting the joint western position that Moscow’s annexation of the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 cannot be accepted and must be reversed.
German navy chief resigns over Ukraine & Putin comments
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Germany’s Navy chief, vice-admiral Kay-Achim Schönbach, has vacated his post on Saturday evening – just a day after he said that Crimea “will never come back”, and that Putin and Russia “deserve respect.” pic.twitter.com/nB2Ew3v5EZ— Ben Schaack (@BuyingStrength) January 22, 2022
On Saturday, Schönbach said he had submitted his resignation “to avoid any more damage being done to the Germany navy and above all, to the German federal republic”.
A German defence ministry official said Schönbach would leave his post “with immediate effect”. A ministry statement made it clear the vice-admiral’s comments did not reflect Germany’s position.
Earlier on Saturday, the Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, had summoned Germany’s ambassador to Kyiv to protest “the categorical unacceptability” of Schönbach’s comments.
Kuleba also condemned Germany for its refusal to supply weapons to Kyiv, urging Berlin to stop “undermining unity” and “encouraging Vladimir Putin”.
The United States, Britain and the Baltic states have agreed to send to Kyiv weapons, including anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.
On Saturday the German defence minister, Christine Lambrecht, said Berlin would send a field hospital to Ukraine, while once again rejecting Kyiv’s calls for weapons.
Berlin has already delivered respirators to Ukraine and severely injured Ukrainian soldiers are currently being treated in German military hospitals, she told Welt am Sonntag newspaper.
“Weapons deliveries would not be helpful at the moment – that is the consensus within the government,” Lambrecht said.
Kuleba said on Twitter that Germany’s statements “about the impossibility of supplying defence weapons to Ukraine” did not match “the current security situation”.
“The German partners must stop undermining unity with such words and actions and encouraging Vladimir Putin to launch a new attack on Ukraine,” Kuleba said.
Ukraine is “grateful” to Germany for the support it has already provided, but its “current statements are disappointing”, he added.
With Reuters and Agence France-Presse