Germany following France’s example? Fake news, disavowal, new data testifying to Macron’s style

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called on the EU member states to allow Ukraine to use weapons obtained from the NATO member-states to strike the Russian Federation (proceeding from “Ukraine’s right to self-defense”) on May 28.

After this statement, almost all news agencies confidently announced that Berlin officially allowed Ukraine to attack Russian territory by German weapons.

Is this information true?

According to the Ukrainian media, German Federal Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius, who has visited Odesa recently, only discussed the possibility of striking the Russian Federation by German weapons.

At the same time, he referred to the statement made by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz about using these weapons within international law.

Stressing that this aspect must be considered, Pistorius said that there are bilateral agreements. The public discussion and drawing any “red lines” in terms of determining “tolerance or intolerance” are not the purposes of these agreements.

In other words, Pistorius carefully checked the accuracy of his statements, essentially disavowing the euphoria in several media outlets about an immediate strike against the Russian Federation.

Pistorius announced 500 million euros in German aid to Ukraine, which includes missiles for IRIS-T air defence systems, artillery and unmanned systems.

In general, today Germany ranks second (after the US) in arms supplies to Ukraine (the figure is about 30 billion euros).

However, at the moment Scholz has not changed his position in transferring long-range missiles made in Germany to Kyiv.

Several commentators suggested that in case of Berlin’s consent to attack the Russian territory, it is possible to talk about “short and medium-range” systems.

By the way, this subtlety, associated with the harsh statements of the world media outlets about the permission of the NATO member states to shell Russian territory by Western weapons, turned out to be characteristic towards the US.

Following a well-publicized attack on Russia in the coming days (amid US President Joe Biden’s unpublicized approval of using the US weapons for these purposes), it suddenly turns out that “red lines” are valid in this field, in particular, to protect the borders of Kharkiv region.

Berlin’s readiness to take anti-Russian steps by using weapons was disseminated in the media outlets immediately after the end of the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Germany.

Perhaps, sensational fake information was disseminated by the media outlets with its immediate disavowal after a few hours thanks to Macron.

This corresponds to the style of France’s geopolitical life regarding sending or not sending the French servicemen to Ukraine. Sometimes France is ready to send, sometimes it is not quite ready, sometimes it is barely ready, sometimes it is not ready at all.

So Berlin is also using such a policy although some experts suggest that the purpose of all “public” discussions reveals another sensitive point - the actual sending of Western military specialists to Ukraine.

This means that news agencies have been lobbying for quite a long time the idea that even if NATO voices approval for the use of Western weapons against Moscow, the process of launching attacks will be controlled by Western advisers.

It is openly stated that the Ukrainian military will be able to act upon the corresponding instructions.

That is, the analysts who support this point of view see the main background of this situation as the presence of Western military personnel on the Ukrainian territory, as if on a legal basis.

Surely this is not a secret for the Kremlin. Press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov said that the relevant Russian agencies have information that the US weapons may be used against Russia.

“This is enough for us to understand the degree of US involvement in the current situation,” Peskov added.

Pistorius noted that Germany has begun to “strategically adapt to the changing situation”, adjusting its own decisions.

He reiterated the thesis about the admissibility of using Western weapons to protect the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the direction of Kharkiv.

However, in any case, fakes, disavowing, new data testify to France’s style. Perhaps Berlin likes such a policy.

Teymur Atayev, political analyst writing articles specially for Caliber.Az

The views and opinions expressed by hired political analysts may differ and do not always reflect the views of Caliber.Az.