"Russia has stopped": Scholz sees "red line marked" against Putin's nuclear threats

Created: 12/08/2022 10:09 am

By: Marcus Giebel

More and more Ukrainian missions are receiving packages containing bloody animal eyes.

Apparently they were all abandoned in Germany.

News ticker on war diplomacy.

• Packages

  with

  animal eyes

  : All shipments are said to have been posted by a Tesla dealer in Germany.

• This

  news ticker

  on

  diplomatic events

  surrounding the

  Ukraine war

  is updated regularly.

Update from December 8, 6:06 a.m

.: Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) sees the danger of a nuclear escalation in the Ukraine war falling.

"Russia has stopped threatening to use nuclear weapons," Scholz told the

newspapers and the French newspaper

.

This is a "response to the international community having drawn a red line".

When asked whether the danger of a nuclear escalation had been averted, Scholz said: "For the moment we have taken a peg against it."

The Chancellor again called on Moscow to end the war immediately and withdraw troops from Ukraine.

At the same time, he was willing to “talk to Russia about arms control in Europe”.

This was offered to Moscow before the war - "and nothing has changed in this position".

Scholz on Ukraine aid: "No one has delivered western-style battle tanks"

At the same time, Scholz defended the aid for Kyiv.

"After the United States, Germany is one of the countries that supports Ukraine the most, including with weapons," he said.

The federal government always acts in close consultation with its allies.

"By the way, no one has delivered Western-style main battle tanks," added the Chancellor.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday (December 7) that Moscow would only use nuclear weapons in response to an attack.

"We consider weapons of mass destruction, nuclear weapons, as a means of defense," said the Kremlin chief.

Olaf Scholz © John MacDougall/AFP

Packages with animal eyes: All shipments should be from German dealers

First report from December 7th

: Munich - The investigations into the suspicious packages that were sent to Ukrainian embassies and consulates in various countries have led to an initial success.

As Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba explained, the trail leads to Germany.

"All envelopes have the same return address: the Tesla dealership in the German city of Sindelfingen," the chief diplomat stressed.

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He named Ukrainian missions in Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Denmark as recipients of these broadcasts.

"In total, we already have 31 cases in 15 countries," added Kuleba.

Most of the mail was sent from post offices that were not equipped with a video surveillance system.

A package containing animal tissue also arrived here: the Ukrainian embassy in Prague was also a destination for the sender, who apparently lived in Germany.

© IMAGO / CTK Photo

Packages with animal eyes – Kyiv evaluates action as “planned terror campaign”

According to a confidant of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the embassies and consulates have been working "under increased security measures" and with pyrotechnicians and forensic scientists for a week.

Kuleba emphasized that the "criminals" took precautions not to leave any DNA traces.

The packages that have been arriving at Ukrainian diplomatic missions in EU countries for several days are said to contain bloody animal eyes.

Kyiv sees this as a “planned terror and intimidation campaign”.

Earlier, at the end of November, a security guard at the Ukrainian Embassy in Madrid was said to have been slightly injured after opening a letter bomb addressed to the Embassy.

Since then, the representations have been on high alert.