German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Tuesday rejected accusations from Moscow that Berlin's support for Ukraine is driven by revanchism, calling the claims a distraction from Russia's own actions.
Russia earlier said German foreign policy towards Ukraine was shaped by revenge fantasies, accusing Berlin of being obsessed with settling historical scores.
In a statement issued after Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's annual press conference at the beginning of the year, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Germany's unconditional backing of Ukraine formed part of what it described as a revanchist agenda.
Speaking during a meeting with New Zealand's Foreign Minister Winston Peters in the Bay of Islands on New Zealand's North Island, Wadephul said Russia was seeking to divert attention from its current conduct.
He said Germany had no difficulty confronting its own past and acknowledged the role of the Soviet Union in defeating Nazi rule during World War II.
Wadephul said Germany recognized that victims of Nazi aggression included people from Ukraine as well as other nations of the former Soviet Union, adding that this historical reality was not disputed in Germany. At the same time, he said Berlin would not accept attempts to silence criticism of Russia's present-day actions.
Germany would continue to speak out clearly about what he described as Russia's criminal conduct, he added.
The Foreign Ministry in Moscow also criticized the fact that 80 years after the end of World War II, German weapons are once again being used en masse to target Russian territory.
The German armed forces are already stationed in Lithuania, the Russian statement pointed out. If Berlin were to try this in Ukraine, the soldiers would be fought as "legitimate targets," referring to the discussion about Germany's participation in an international security force after the end of the Ukraine war.
Wadephul said any possible deployment of German troops to help secure a future peace settlement in Ukraine would depend on Russia creating the conditions for a stable security order to emerge. He said a potential agreement would include provisions on whether foreign forces could be stationed on Ukrainian territory and in what form.
Germany was working constructively to bring the war to an end, Wadephul said, adding that for now Russia's behaviour could only be described as destructive.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago, claiming that his own security was threatened by NATO ambitions in the neighbouring country.
To end the hostilities, Moscow demands not only that Ukraine renounce joining NATO but also make significant territorial concessions.
