The German government's decision not to supply weapons to Ukraine is political. This was announced on Wednesday, June 9, by the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Dmitry Kuleba at a joint briefing with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.
"There is not a single international rule that would limit Ukraine's ability to receive or buy weapons abroad. We are not under the arms embargo, we are a responsible participant in international mechanisms to control the transfer of weapons, " Kuleba said at a briefing broadcast on the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's Facebook page.
According to him, there is no restriction that would prohibit Ukraine from buying weapons. In addition, there are no legal prohibitions in German legislation that would prevent the sale of weapons to the Ukrainian side.
"We understand that the decision taken by the German government is political, and I want to clearly remove any suspicion that there are any restrictions on the supply of weapons to Ukraine. Germany is a sovereign state. And it has the right to make those decisions that it considers effective and efficient, " Kuleba concluded.
Earlier in the day, the official representative of the German government, Steffen Seibert, said that Germany does not consider the supply of weapons to Ukraine a way to come to a detente in the Donbass.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on May 31 that Kiev would like to receive weapons from Berlin, including automatic rifles and radio equipment.
At the same time, on May 26, Seibert said that the government of the current convocation adheres to a restrictive policy of arms exports. According to him, Berlin is not going to change the decision to refuse to issue a permit for the supply of weapons to Ukraine. In addition, on June 1, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas stressed that the supply of weapons to Ukraine will not help solve the conflict that is taking place in the east of the country.
The day before, Zelensky submitted to the Verkhovna Rada bills aimed at increasing the size of the country's armed forces. The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova on the same day pointed out that Kiev's decisions are made against the background of pumping Ukraine with NATO weapons and inflating the military budget. Thus, a militaristic regime is being nurtured in the center of Europe, she stressed.
On May 7, the head of the Kiev delegation to the contact group on the Donbas, Leonid Kravchuk, said that in the future, Ukraine will develop military cooperation with the United States and other NATO countries. According to him, Kiev can count on the supply of lethal weapons. Russia has repeatedly noted that the supply of weapons to Kiev can only lead to an escalation in the Donbas.
Since 2014, Kiev has been conducting a military operation against the residents of Donbass, who refused to recognize the results of the coup and the new government in Ukraine. At the same time, the Ukrainian authorities blame Russia for the current situation. Moscow noted that it is not a party to the internal Ukrainian conflict.
