Ukraine's Melnyk appeals to Scholz: No red lines on arms deliveries

One year after the Russian attack on Ukraine, Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrij Melnyk has accused the German government of taking a "zigzag approach" when it comes to the conflict.

In an interview with dpa, Melnyk conceded that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had "broken an epoch-making taboo" with his announcement of military aid for Ukraine two days after the invasion. "But the implementation of this turnaround lags considerably, it is more reminiscent of a zigzag approach with as many setbacks as strategic advances."

There are still "too many obstacles," said the top Ukrainian diplomat, who was ambassador to Germany in the first months of the war. He said that this was a particular problem within Scholz's party, the SPD.

"We Ukrainians call on the chancellor to cross all these self-drawn red lines and provide Ukrainian forces with all available weapons systems."

He said that the arms deliveries from Germany so far were indeed a "quantum leap." However, they were not enough to recapture the territories occupied by Russia, including Crimea.

"We expect further bold decisions from the [German] coalition government, especially a speedy release of German fighter jets as part of a transatlantic aircraft alliance to speed up the liberation of Ukrainians in the occupied territories."

The Ukrainian fleet could also make good use of German frigates, corvettes as well as submarines to break Russia's military dominance in the Black Sea, he said.

On February 26 - two days after the Russian invasion - Scholz had announced support for Ukraine with weapons for the defensive struggle against Russia. Since then weapons worth almost €2.6 billion ($2.75 billion) have either been delivered or firmly committed.

Among them are heavy artillery pieces, multiple rocket launchers and air defence systems. German main battle tanks are also to be sent to Ukraine by the end of March.

Meanwhile Germany's Economy Minister Robert Habeck is planning to make it more difficult for exporters to circumvent economic sanctions against Russia.

A paper from his office, which was made available to dpa in Berlin on Thursday, suggests that EU-sanctioned goods are being exported "to a considerable extent" from the EU, and thus also from Germany, to Russia via certain third countries.

"We must oppose these circumvention activities together more effectively than we have done so far, at the national level and at the EU level," the paper said, adding that this should be the focus of an 11th EU sanctions package.

Specifically, the minister wants to hold companies more accountable. For example, exports to certain third countries will only be possible if transparent end-use declarations are submitted as part of the export declaration.

Kaynak: DPA