GERMANY’S navy chief has resigned from his post after drawing criticism from the German government and Ukraine over his remarks in support of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
‘I have asked Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht to relieve me from my duties with immediate effect,’ Vice Admiral Kay-Achim Schoenbach said in a statement on Saturday, adding: ‘The minister has accepted my request.’
Speaking to a think tank discussion in India on Friday, the video of which was later posted on the social media, Schoenbach said Putin deserved respect and that Ukraine would never be able to reclaim its former territory of Crimea, which joined the Russian Federation in a referendum in 2014.
‘What he (Putin) really wants is respect,’ Schoenbach told the discussion. ‘And my God, giving someone respect is low cost, even no cost … It is easy to give him the respect he really demands – and probably also deserves,’ he added, calling Russia an old and important country.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Schoenbach added that ‘the Crimea Peninsula is gone, it will never come back; this is a fact’, contradicting the joint Western position that Moscow has ‘annexed’ the territory.
Prior to Schoenbach’s resignation, the German Defence Ministry publicly criticised his remarks, saying they did not reflect Germany’s position in either content or wording.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry also called on Germany to publicly reject the navy chief’s comments, saying in a statement that Schoenbach’s comments could impair efforts made by the Western countries to de-escalate the situation.
‘Ukraine is grateful to Germany for the support it has already provided since 2014, as well as for the diplomatic efforts to resolve the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict. But Germany’s current statements are disappointing and run counter to that support and effort,’ Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said separately in a tweet.
Germany had already enraged the Ukraine by refusing to deliver arms to the country, with Berlin saying that there’s no consensus among German politicians over the matter.
The United States and its European allies have refused to recognise the Crimean referendum’s results, accusing Moscow of having a hand in an armed conflict that has been raging in two Ukrainian regions.
There is one country that is standing shoulder to shoulder with the USA in support of the Ukraine and it is, of course, Israel. In fact, Israel has signed a deal worth three billion euros ($3.4 billion) with Germany to purchase three advanced submarines from the country’s Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems.
The agreement was inked by director-general of the Israeli ministry of military affairs Amir Eshel and Thyssenkrupp CEO Rolf Wirtz at the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv on Thursday. Among the small number of senior officials at the ceremony was Israeli Navy commander David Salama. Israel’s navy already operates five German-built Dolphin-class submarines and a sixth is under construction.
Large numbers of Jewish people will be feeling very sick at Israel’s alliance with Krupp, that built up the German Nazi war machine that killed millions of Jews, Russians and Poles during the Second World War.
Meanwhile, Hamas and the Palestine Authority have slammed the Israeli government for its support of Germany and slammed Germany for opposing the ICC probe into Israeli war crimes.
Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have condemned the remarks by the German president that the ICC has no jurisdiction over the Israeli regime.
Alongside the submarines, an 850-million-euro agreement was signed with the German government to invest in Israeli industries, including military firms.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch concludes that Israel is committing crimes against humanity of ‘apartheid and persecution’ against Palestinians, and plans to forward its findings to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for due action.
Germany will no doubt oppose such a move in order to get more Israeli military contracts. German and Palestinian workers must unite and stand together to fight and defeat the imperialist powers and their conspiracies.
