Germany’s foreign ministry has been criticised across party lines in Berlin for accusing the Russian state of “revanchism”.
Green Party member Anton Hofreiter, who chairs the European Union committee in the Bundestag, called the charge “bizarre” arguing that a representative of an imperialist regime, which is committing serious war crimes, cannot tarnish the support European states give Ukraine in its self‑defence. He said Germany backs the Ukrainian people “against Russian aggression and towards the European Union, which the Russian government seeks to prevent”. Hofreiter denounced the accusation as unacceptable and part of a series of defamatory statements directed at German and European politicians.
The Union’s foreign‑policy spokesman, Jürgen Hardt of the CDU, echoed the sentiment. He said the Russian diversion attempts were “reaching new absurdities” adding that Germany, due to its history, could not ignore a murder that was taking place in Europe. Hardt also noted that civilians in Ukraine suffered greatly during World II, being among the biggest victims of Nazi crimes.
Earlier, the foreign ministry had declared in Moscow that Germany has “stopped hiding the fact that it is driven by a compulsion to take revenge for past defeats”. It called the unrestricted support for Ukraine “part of Germany’s revanchism”. The ministry suggested that 80 years after the end of World II, large numbers of German munitions will again be used against Russian territory. German troops are already stationed in Lithuania, and if they were deployed in Ukraine, they would be treated as “legitimate targets” as would other foreign forces.