Ukraine asks Germany to ‘forget its war guilt,’ Nazi past and send weapons

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky on Saturday demanded that Germany must forget its Nazi past from WWII and its "war guilt,’ and provide Ukraine with advanced weaponry to fight off the Russian aggression. Zelenskyy's comments were made during an agency interview, wherein he iterated that Berlin's Nazi history has created “psychological barriers” for the country that has been reluctant to send weapons during the war. 

For the Germans, World War II memories still loom large and have impacted the foreign policies of the Olaf Scholz administration which sees the Ukraine invasion as reliving the legacy. Russia's President Vladimir Putin has often used the term "neo-Nazi" and their atrocities on the ethnic Russian population in the eastern Donbass region to justify his military intervention in Kyiv. Ukrainian president, although, reminded that Russian forces have been committing war crimes in his country, as he demanded more weapons for the fight. He singled out Germany, stressing that the EU nation must let go of its harrowing past and support Ukraine. 

‘What is Berlin afraid of?'

Ukraine officials have also accused Germany of ignoring Kyiv’s requests of providing the military hardware, including Leopard tanks and infantry fighting vehicles in apparent speculation not to anger Russia. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in a statement questioned Berlin for not approving military aid for Ukraine, saying that German officials are full of "abstract fears and excuses” and have been unwilling to supply weapons in a fresh escalation between the two countries. 

"Not a single rational argument on why these weapons cannot be supplied, only abstract fears and excuses," Kuleba said in a post on Twitter. "What is Berlin afraid of that Kyiv is not."

Kuleba's allegations came shortly after President Volodymyr Zelensky made a new appeal in a video message to the West to speed up deliveries of weapons systems as Ukrainian forces launched a counteroffensive to capture back the large swathe of northeastern territory from the Russian troops. Berlin has been struggling to implement many military aids, leading to a delay in tank deliveries to Ukraine as its forces sought to reconquer territories.