Russia asks Germany to explain its status in Ukraine conflict after tank announcement

The Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, has asked the German ambassador to Russia to clarify Berlin's position on the ongoing war in Ukraine as Germany agreed to supply the Leopard tanks to Ukraine's military. "The German foreign minister said that her country was fighting jointly with other nations against Russia, while her ministry does not consider their own country to be a party to the conflict. Taking into account these contradictory statements, the German ambassador to Russia should clarify them," the Russian foreign ministry spokesperson said on the Telegram channel.

Moscow had also earlier denounced Germany's assertion that Russia decided to redraw the map of Europe by annexing the Ukrainian territories. Baerbock had slammed Russia's President Vladimir Putin’s unilateral attempts to illegally shift Europe's borders and redraw Ukraine's map. "It's funny that this thesis is spoken in Germany," Zakharova had said in her response on Telegram and Facebook.

Germany claims 'fighting a war against Russia'

The German Foreign Ministry, this week, agreed to supply the Leopard tanks to Ukraine to counter the Russian assaults. Baerbock, addressing the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe earlier this week, also made blatant claims that Germany is "fighting a war against Russia." Russia condemned Germany's role in the supply of battle tanks to Kyiv and abandoned its “historical responsibility to Russia” that it was bound to since World War II.

While Berlin said that it will supply 14 German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Kyiv, Russia derided Germany's involvement, calling it an escalation to the war. “This extremely dangerous decision takes the conflict to a new level of confrontation and contradicts the statements of German politicians about the unwillingness of the Federal Republic of Germany to be drawn into it,” Russian Ambassador Sergei Nechayev noted in a statement. 

“It destroys the remnants of mutual trust, causes irreparable damage to the already deplorable state of Russian-German relations, and casts doubt on the possibility of their normalisation in the foreseeable future," asserted Nechayev. 

Russia, earlier yesterday, also warned that it will destroy the German-made Leopard 2 tanks just as the Red Army knocked out the Tiger and Nazi Germany's most-produced Panther tanks during World War II (known as the Great Patriotic War in Russia). The Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Kolokoltsev, in a statement, lambasted Berlin for approving Leopard 2 tanks for the Ukrainian forces, threatening that Russian forces will "completely" burn them.