German MEP Michael Gahler: Ukraine should be given defensive weapons
MEP of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), Michael Gahler, has said that Ukraine needs to be provided with intelligence equipment and defensive weapons due to the deteriorating situation in the Donbas, Radio Polsha reported.
A similar opinion was expressed by the Chairman of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs Elmar Brok. However, he warned that the supply of defensive weapons should be implemented in such a way that Russia would not consider it to be a violation of the peace treaty signed in Minsk.
MEP of the German Greens, Rebecca Harms, has called on the EU governments to look at the real problem, which is who is responsible for the worsening military situation. In her opinion, accusing both the separatists and Kiev of the same degree of responsibility is “not acceptable”, as it weakens the will to implement reforms in Ukraine.
According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, representatives of CDU, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Greens are all against lifting, or even weakening, the sanctions against Russia.
In a journalistic study of documents issued by the OSCE observers between the 16th of April to the 31st of July, it appears that the separatists violated the ceasefire on many more occasions than the soldiers of the Ukrainian army.
German journalists added that the separatists impeded, or even completely prevented, observers from monitoring in the framework of the OSCE mission more times than the government troops did.
However, representatives of the German Foreign Ministry think that the OSCE reports do not provide a definitive decision as to who is guilty of violating the truce in the Donbas. They think that even the supply of defensive weapons will not help resolve the conflict.