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Chancellor Scholz: “Signal of support for Kiev”

Photo: Christoph Soeder/dpa

According to Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), Germany, France and Poland are now procuring more weapons for Ukraine on the world market.

After a meeting of the so-called Weimar Triangle in Berlin, Scholz said that he had agreed on this approach with French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

In addition, the three countries had agreed on a “new capability coalition for long-range rocket artillery” for the Ukrainian army, said Scholz.

According to Scholz, the coalition to procure rocket artillery will be formed as part of the Ramstein contact group.

The group of 50 countries, formed in spring 2022, meets regularly to organize support for Ukraine in the war against Russia.

He also agreed with Macron and Tusk to expand the production of military equipment and to work with partners in Ukraine.

Scholz said the Weimar Triangle meeting sent a “signal of support for Kiev.”

Referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, he added: "He knows that he can rely on us."

At the same time, “a crystal-clear signal is being sent from this point to Moscow.”

"The Russian President should know: We will not let up in our support for Ukraine; we stand unwaveringly and united on Ukraine's side."

Mützenich snubs traffic lights

Scholz's announcement to Kiev comes just one day after SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich discussed a possible freezing of the war in Ukraine in the Bundestag.

In the Bundestag debate about the CDU/CSU's Taurus proposal, he said: "Isn't it time that we not only talk about how to wage a war, but also think about how to freeze a war and end it later “Isn’t it “also political about these questions?”

There was a lot of criticism for the statements.

Green party leader Ricarda Lang told Welt TV that the speech was a “relapse into the social democracy’s old Russia policy.”

"It is clear that freezing this conflict would ultimately lead to unbelievable suffering for the many people in these occupied territories."

FDP leader Christian Lindner accused the coalition partner SPD of abusing the debate about the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine for election campaign maneuvers.

"Questions of the security of the Federal Republic of Germany and the existence of democracy in Ukraine must not become the subject of the primary election campaign, as the chairman of the SPD parliamentary group tried to do."

Is the SPD moving away from the turning point?

Lindner's party colleague, Europe's top candidate Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, pushed for a quick statement from Chancellor Scholz and the SPD itself. "If Rolf Mützenich, who as chairman speaks for the entire SPD parliamentary group, seriously calls for a freeze on the war in Ukraine, “The Chancellor’s SPD party is obviously moving away from the agreed turnaround,” Strack-Zimmermann told the magazine “Stern”.

When asked about an assessment of Mützenich's speech in the Bundestag, government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said that statements from the parliamentary chamber were not evaluated by the government.

At the same time, he emphasized that Germany supports Ukraine "in its defense against the Russian aggressor with everything we can be responsible for."

Hebestreit added: "That's it."

Mützenich himself rejected the criticism of his statements.

In his speech, he "clearly spoke out in favor of supporting Ukraine, including with weapons and ammunition," he told the "Rheinische Post."

In addition, like many before him, he "suggested thinking not only about military aid, but also about the conditions for a possible end to the war."

Mützenich emphasized that he was "under no circumstances advocating the surrender of the territories in the east of Ukraine and Crimea that were occupied in violation of international law."

mfh/AFP