What Robert Habeck really wanted to say is not that easy to fathom.

During his trip to Ukraine, the Greens chairman described Kiev's desire for “defensive weapons” as “justified”.

It is "difficult to deny" Ukraine that.

Jürgen Trittin, former party chairman himself, immediately contradicted: "Arms exports to Ukraine would contradict our principle that we do not export weapons to war zones," he told the editorial network Germany.

The green spokeswoman for disarmament policy, Katja Keul, also distanced herself.

There has rarely been so much dissent among the Greens recently.

Helene Bubrowski

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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    Peter Carstens

    Political correspondent in Berlin

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      After a visit to the front line, Habeck spoke up again: "Ukraine is not only fighting for itself here, it is also defending the security of Europe," he said on Deutschlandfunk. “Ukraine feels left alone in terms of security policy, and it is left alone.” The talk was no longer of “defensive weapons”, but of “night vision devices, reconnaissance devices, ordnance disposal, medivacs”, i.e. technology for transporting and treating the injured.

      Omid Nouripour, the foreign policy spokesman for the Green Group, does not want to hear about a tangible row over a politically very sensitive issue: “Robert and Jürgen both say the same thing.

      Nobody wants to deny Ukraine life-saving protective equipment such as minesweepers, even if they are legally precisely called 'weapons' ", he told the FAZ. "

      SPD accuses Habeck of “carelessness”

      There was already a lot of excitement about the fact that it was primarily a semantic problem - in the party and among the political opponents. Habeck had to listen to the accusation of "carelessness" from the SPD. His statement underscores "how little capable and insincere the Greens are currently acting," said the SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich to the magazine Der Spiegel. The CDU politician Jürgen Hardt countered Habeck that arms deliveries to Ukraine could be an excuse for Russia to act more aggressively.

      Significant voices among the Greens disagree with this objection. The refusal of the federal government to deliver weapons has evidently brought no improvement in the situation in the east, it is said. The Greens are also very angry with the SPD. “Again and again you catch social democrats saying you have to understand feelings about Russia. Ironically, the SPD is now the accusation of frivolous foreign policy, ”says Manuel Sarrazin, spokesman for the Greens for Eastern European policy.

      Annalena Baerbock, party leader and candidate for chancellor, also advocates a tougher line towards Russia. This is not just about the call for completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. In an interview with the FAS recently, she spoke out in favor of Ukraine's support in clearing mines. She was more cautious about Ukraine's NATO membership. The perspective exists, but you shouldn't take the third step before the first, says Baerbock. The discussion about a NATO expansion could lead to internal upheavals among the Greens, which does not suit the party leadership shortly before the election. But because Habeck did not want to meet the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj, with whom he had previously met, empty-handed, the "defensive weapons" came on the table.