Germany's federal government has rejected threats from Russia directed at countries supporting Ukraine. "The threats and statements aimed at EU or NATO partners are nothing new," a spokeswoman for the Federal Foreign Office said in Berlin on Monday. "We take note of them, we will not be intimidated by them, and neither will we be intimidated in our support for Ukraine."
The spokeswoman was referring to remarks made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday. He had said: "We will sharply intensify our methods in order to destroy everything that feeds Kyiv's war machine from the West. And we are already doing this."
Lavrov's comments also drew attention in connection with the recent drone incident at Leipzig/Halle Airport. A drone loaded with explosives had been discovered there inside the secure area of the cargo operation. Several Ukrainian freight aircraft were parked nearby. The airport is regarded as a transhipment point for military aid deliveries to Ukraine. Suspicion falls on Russia.
A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Defence said on Monday that there is a "constant process" in place to guarantee the "best possible security" for military support to Ukraine. "Naturally, we are in close coordination with our Ukrainian partners on the issue of delivery security," he said.
The protective measures also include a decision by the federal government to no longer provide information "about individual deliveries, about timetables, about margins and quantities" of the support for Ukraine. The aim of this, the spokesman added, is to "avoid stirring up any sensitivities that certain deliveries would now have to be taken out."
The chair of the European Parliament's defence committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP), called for a tougher stance towards Russia in response to Lavrov's threats. Germany must "build up its own capabilities to such an extent that Lavrov's threats come to nothing," Strack-Zimmermann told Handelsblatt. Ukraine must also continue to be supported "with everything we have."
The SPD's defence expert Siemtje Möller judged Lavrov's threats to be "an expression of the growing desperation of the Russian regime in the face of the absence of success at the front and the many Ukrainian drone strikes in the Russian hinterland, which are hitting the Russian economy hard." The member of parliament told Handelsblatt: "We should therefore allow ourselves to be neither provoked nor intimidated by these repeated martial threats."
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