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Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in the Bundestag
Photo: Lisi Niesner / REUTERS
The federal government has long hesitated to agree to the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine in the fight against Russian aggression.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) has now defended the hesitant approach in a question time before the Bundestag.
"We must support Ukraine's right to self-defense," Baerbock said.
The traffic light government had been preparing the delivery of heavy weapons in exchange with the NATO allies since the beginning of April, but communicated this little publicly.
The idea was not to endanger the deliveries and not to unnecessarily provoke the head of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin.
At the same time, Baerbock denied that more arms deliveries automatically meant a further escalation of the war.
With his invasion, Putin declared the UN Charter on Human Rights null and void.
Since the Kremlin boss no longer adheres to international law, "he alone decides which of our actions he considers entry into the war," said Baerbock.
"We can't anticipate his actions because he doesn't make decisions based on rules." Accordingly, the West can no longer rely on existing security.
"The brutal reality is that we cannot stop this war with simple answers," said Baerbock, "only the Russian President can do that."
The federal government announced on Tuesday that it would agree to the export of used Gepard anti-aircraft tanks from the arms company KMW to Ukraine.
In doing so, it moved away from its previous position of not supplying tanks directly to the war zone.
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