President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky was outraged that Germany blocked the supply of weapons to Kiev through the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO).
"We are ready for any scenarios, which, unfortunately, cannot be said about all European countries. For example, Germany recently prevented us from supplying anti-drone rifles and anti-sniper systems through NATO, which are exclusively defensive tools," Zelensky said in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica on December 13.
He also stressed that Kiev has every right to purchase such weapons.
"Don't we have the right to do this in the eighth year of the war? Obviously, we have. It's just that fear is still winning in some capitals," the Ukrainian leader concluded.
Earlier on Tuesday, the German newspaper Bild, citing sources, reported that former German Chancellor Angela Merkel personally blocked the supply of weapons to Ukraine through NATO. According to the publication, in May, Germany used the right of veto and blocked the supply of American Barrett rifles and Lithuanian anti-drone rifles already paid for by the Ukrainian side. It is also noted that Zelensky, during Merkel's visit to Kiev in August, personally asked her to lift the ban on supplies, to which she responded with a confident refusal.
On December 12, Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk expressed the opinion that Kiev should not expect Berlin to supply weapons under the new Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Kiev has been conducting a military operation against the residents of Donbass since 2014, who refused to recognize the results of the coup. The Ukrainian authorities blame Moscow for the current situation. The Russian Federation has repeatedly stressed that it is not a party to the internal Ukrainian conflict and called on Kiev to de-escalate and negotiate directly with the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics.
