In Berlin, there are three different political parties which embrace varied ideologies and philosophies, making formulating a united policy towards any crisis a challenge. So news emerging that Germany is rooting for Russia should be scraped.
Before the war started, Germany was one of the main European countries giving economic support to the Ukrainian government since the annexation of Crimea. So it is not really fair to say that Berlin is still hanging on to the idea of partnership with Russia.
They lean closer to Ukraine than Russia, Wolfgang Ischinger, former German ambassador to the United States, who also served as chairman of the Munich Security Conference from 2008 to 2022 told Al Jazeera Berlin wholeheartedly supported Ukraine, adding: “I do not agree with the claim that Germany is not capable of pursuing the exact same policy that our partners have been pursuing towards Ukraine.”
“It’s true that Germany has been late in supporting Ukraine. But it is not true that we never showed up,” said Ischinger. “We have learned from our past mistakes and the government is now on the right course of defending Ukraine together with other EU nations, and shaping the new future of European security.”
In an effort to boost Germany’s support to Ukraine militarily, Scholz recently eased Berlin’s restrictive arms export policy and agreed to supply lethal weapons and Gepard tanks to Kyiv.
Germany had a longstanding practice of blocking lethal weapons from being sent to conflict zones but waking up to the reality that Russia is encircling Ukrainian cities and threatening to topple the government in Kyiv cause Russia government, from its own stockpile to send weapons to Ukraine.
Since the war began in Ukraine, Berlin has begun phasing out its trade relations by imposing sanctions against Russian oligarchs and businesses and supporting a proposed European Union ban on Russian oil.
