Foreign policy doubts about the firmness of Germany's stance towards Russia in the Ukraine crisis have led to a domestic political controversy in Berlin.

The new CDU chairman Friedrich Merz accused Chancellor Olaf Scholz of not ensuring "a clear and unambiguous position" in Germany.

The American Congress is now unanimous in its assessment that the Federal Republic is unreliable on this issue.

"You don't lead, neither in Germany nor in Europe," said Merz.

Johannes Leithauser

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) stated that "pithy sayings" were out of place in the tense situation.

She asserted that the German government was acting "in a united and decisive manner" and renewed the threat to Moscow that in the event of a violation of Ukraine's territorial integrity, Germany and the West had "a wide range of answers at their disposal, including Nord Stream 2".

SPD chairman Lars Klingbeil also defended Scholz: The chancellor said clearly that if Russia crossed the border, “all options were on the table”.

It was Merz, on the other hand, who opposed Russia's exclusion from the SWIFT payment processing system, thus raising doubts about Western determination.

Klingbeil renewed the position that Germany would not deliver arms to Kiev;

Baerbock, on the other hand, made it clear that military support for Ukraine should very well be provided.

She stated that the announced delivery of 5,000 protective helmets was not an arbitrary German symbolic act, but the fulfillment of an express Ukrainian wish.

Germany is also willing to comply with a Ukrainian request and repair bunkers near Odessa.

Even Merkel was not prepared to take such a step

Baerbock charted German leadership in assisting Ukraine, if not in the military, then all the more in the economic and diplomatic spheres. Germany has provided Ukraine with the largest share of international financial aid in various ways, and is a leader in the so-called Normandy format in the negotiations for a peace solution in eastern Ukraine. Baerbock announced that she would travel to the contact line in eastern Ukraine the week after next, together with her French colleague Jean-Yves Le Drian. This limits the areas controlled by separatists operating there with Russian support.

A meeting of the foreign policy advisors to the heads of state and government of the four countries involved took place in Paris on Wednesday, which lasted more than eight hours and ended with a brief joint statement. Although the text contained above all the assurance that they wanted to continue working together to implement the Minsk agreements, it was given importance in Berlin. A second sentence called on the conflicting parties to unconditionally respect the agreed ceasefire, which is often broken along the line of contact, followed by the addition that this applies regardless of any disagreements that existed in other areas about the implementation of the Minsk agreements. Finally, the four also agreed to continue their deliberations in Berlin in two weeks.

The fact that Moscow also has an interest in continuing the dialogue with Germany, France and Ukraine in this context is seen by the Federal Government as an encouraging sign - and as proof that the new Federal Government is playing the leading role in the efforts to achieve a pacification of eastern Ukraine, which the previous government under Chancellor Merkel had worked hard to shape for years. The fact that the yardstick for assessing the German position has meanwhile shrunk to the question of whether Berlin will deliver arms to Kiev – also due to the corresponding severe criticism from the Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin, Andriy Melnyk – will be considered unfair by those currently acting, also becausebecause the Merkel government could not be persuaded to take such a step during the acute crisis of 2014 – and had to withstand American criticism.