Ukraine ambassador demands that Germany stop blocking arms supplies to Kyiv

Germany must abandon its policy of blocking defensive arms supplies to Kyiv and help Ukraine fend off Russian aggression.

This was stated by Ambassador of Ukraine to Germany Andrij Melnyk, who spoke with the Funke Mediagruppe newspapers, Ukrinform reports.

The envoy called on the newly-appointed government to "abandon the existing policy of blocking, which in terms of morality is completely wrong, and urgently provide Ukraine with the required defense weapons" because Ukrainians have every right to self-defense.

According to the ambassador, Germany bears the same historical responsibility to Ukraine for the crimes of Nazism as it does to Israel. That is why, according to the diplomat, Ukraine has the right to count on "massive military support" from Germany immediately to significantly increase the cost of Putin's attack on Ukraine and to have enough time to prevent it.

The Ukrainian diplomat stressed that the threat of Russia's full-scale military invasion of Ukraine still remains relevant and that Putin has not abandoned plans to destroy Ukrainian statehood. Berlin, Melnyk stressed, should not underestimate this permanent threat of war and ignore it.

In addition, the diplomat called on the German government to lobby for Ukraine's accession to NATO and the EU as soon as possible. In his opinion, only Ukraine's membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will repel Putin from any temptation to invade Ukraine.

Commenting on talks between the West and Russia, scheduled for this week, Melnyk said it would be naive to hope for any breakthroughs. He recommended that the Western allies instead impose immediate sanctions on Moscow before it is too late. He called the ultimate halt to the Nord Stream 2 project an integral part of the sanctions catalog.

Melnyk warned Germany against "a policy of appeasement towards an increasingly aggressive Russia." He called on the West to "treat Moscow as a leper, a pariah state that must be subjected to international isolation."

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