Dead today in Butscha and tomorrow in the streets of Berlin? The Secretary of Defense warns against it. The chancellor defends them against accusations that they are too hesitant to deliver arms.
The Bundestag has condemned the atrocities in the Ukrainian city of Bucha. Demands were made across party lines to consistently pursue and punish the perpetrators.
“Russian soldiers committed a massacre of Ukrainian civilians there before they retreated,” said Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the government survey on Wednesday. “The murder of civilians is a war crime.” One must expect to see more such pictures from other places.
Parliament President Bärbel Bas (SPD) said: “The German Bundestag condemns these war crimes in the strongest possible terms.” It is obviously about terror against the entire Ukrainian people.
The war in Ukraine and the massacre discovered after the Russian troops left Bucha, killing many civilians, was a central theme in the government survey and later in a current hour. Green foreign politician Jürgen Trittin urgently warned: “We must not forget any of these murders. None of these killers can go unpunished.” Everything will therefore be done to secure evidence and actually bring those responsible to justice. “Impunity for crimes against humanity is complicity.”
Controversy over arms deliveries
On the question of German arms deliveries to Ukraine, however, the cross-party consensus came to an end. The Chancellor defended his Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) against the accusation that he was acting too hesitantly. He knows that she is “doing everything that is feasible in view of the decisions made by our allies and the capabilities of the Bundeswehr,” he said. “Whatever weapons we can deliver from the Bundeswehr’s current stocks, everything that makes sense and works quickly, that will be delivered.”
In the current hour, Lambrecht defended the extensive secrecy of the details of the deliveries. “If we don’t talk publicly about the type and number of weapons supplied, then there’s a good reason: Ukraine specifically asked for it. And we stick to it, »said the minister. From a military point of view, it is about the fact that Russia remains in the dark about the types and quantities of the weapons supplied and cannot prepare for them. “The enemy is listening.”
After the Russian attack on Ukraine, the German government broke a taboo and decided to supply weapons to the war zone. So far, Ukraine has received anti-aircraft missiles, rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns and several million rounds of ammunition. After the Butscha massacre, deliveries are to be expanded again.
Union is critical
The Union repeated its allegations against the traffic light government: “We deliver too little, too slowly and too late,” said deputy parliamentary group leader Patricia Lips (CDU). The CDU foreign politician Johann Wadephul explained that if the Ukrainians wanted to defend themselves successfully, they would need heavy equipment – armored vehicles, armored recovery vehicles, armored bridge-laying vehicles, perhaps even battle tanks and artillery. “They need that to survive.”
Lambrecht emphasized that the Putin system should not win and not prevail. Otherwise everyone could no longer be sure. “Anyone who acts like Putin doesn’t care whether the bodies are on the streets of Bucha or Tbilisi, Vilnius or Berlin.” Therefore, Ukraine must be supported in its fight against the Putin system – “wherever we can,” said the SPD politician. In addition, Germany must learn “to be much more defensive”.
Scholz warns of “dictated peace”
With a view to the ongoing negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow on an end to the war, Chancellor Scholz called the neutrality offered by Ukraine a “major concession to the aggressor”. At the same time, he made it clear: “It must not result in a dictated peace.” The question of security guarantees for Ukraine has “not yet been spelled out,” said Scholz.
A day before the federal-state round table on the admission of Ukrainian refugees in Germany, he called for people not to get caught up in a dispute over funding. “I wish that we wouldn’t have an eternity-long discussion about financial issues between the different levels of our country, but that we would come to an agreement quickly and swiftly between the federal government and the states.” The real task is to help the refugees who have sought protection in Germany.
Scholz announced a “Sanctions Enforcement Act” to give the punitive measures against Russia more power in practice. The question is “completely justified” as to whether the state has all the necessary tools to act as it wants, for example when it comes to confiscating assets, he said. “And the answer to that is no.” A task force was therefore set up and it was already agreed in the coalition agreement to increase the scope for action.
Source: Stern
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