Ukraine today condemned Germany for its refusal to supply weapons to Kyiv, urging Berlin to stop 'undermining unity' and 'encouraging Vladimir Putin' amid fears of a Russian invasion.
In a separate development, Ukraine's foreign ministry said Saturday it had also summoned the German ambassador to Ukraine, Anka Feldhusen.
This was to stress 'the categorical unacceptability' of comments by German naval chief Kay-Achim Schoenbach in which he called Russian plans to invade Ukraine 'inept', the foreign ministry said. Mr Schoenbach also said of Russia's president: 'It's easy to give him the respect he wants, and probably deserves as well.'
Some have accused Germany of failing to stand up to Putin as tension on Russia's border with Europe mounts.
Tory MP Bob Seely, who is a member of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said today of the growing crisis: 'The real bad guys here, so to speak, sorry to say this, are the Germans'.
Speaking to Times Radio, he put this down to Germany's 'energy policy, their complete dependence on Russian oil and gas, their willingness to have the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which is not even needed, built, purely so that the Russians can cut off supplies to Ukraine, is incredibly self-centred and selfish.'
Speaking about President Vladimir Putin, Mr Seely said: 'It is his long-term goal to undermine and shatter the confidence in the ability of Nato.
He said some kind of military action is 'much more likely than not', adding that Russia's intentions over the next 10 years will be to absorb Ukraine back into Russia's sphere of interests and 'destroy Nato as best they can'.
Meanwhile, Russian Su-35S fighter jets began arriving in Belarus on Friday as Putin continues to mass forces around Ukraine. Video showed the Sukhoi warplanes en route to the landlocked country which shares a border with Ukraine. The planes had flown in from Siberia.
Earlier today, the Russian defence minister agreed to meet UK counterpart Ben Wallace in Moscow for emergency talks after Tory MP Tobias Ellwood warned an invasion of Ukraine was 'imminent' and that President Vladimir Putin was 'exploiting Western weakness'.
The talks come after Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy yesterday predicted a 'large-scale war' after Moscow spent months massing more than 100,000 troops, tanks and artillery pieces along the border and last ditch US negotiations with the Kremlin yesterday failed to produce a breakthrough.
With tens of thousands of Russian troops gathered on the Ukrainian border, fears are mounting that a major conflict could break out in Europe.
Ukraine's calls to Western allies to bolster its defence capabilities have seen the United States, Britain and Baltic states agree to send to Kyiv weapons, including anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba Kuleba said on Twitter that Germany's statements 'about the impossibility of supplying defence weapons to Ukraine' did not match 'the current security situation'.
Ukraine's minister stressed that 'today the unity of the West in relation to Russia is more important than ever.
'The German partners must stop undermining unity with such words and actions and encouraging (Russian President) Vladimir Putin to launch a new attack on Ukraine,' Kuleba said.
Ukraine is 'grateful' to Germany for the support it has already provided, but its 'current statements are disappointing', he added.
Ukraine's foreign ministry added in a statement that it wanted to express its 'deep disappointment' at the German's government's 'failure to provide defence weapons to Ukraine'.
Earlier on Saturday German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht said Berlin would send a field hospital to Ukraine, while once again rejecting Kyiv's calls for weapons.
Berlin has already delivered respirators to Ukraine and severely injured Ukrainian soldiers are currently being treated in Bundeswehr hospitals, she told Welt am Sonntag newspaper.
'Weapons deliveries would not be helpful at the moment - that is the consensus within the government,' Lambrecht said.
Moscow insists it has no plans to invade Ukraine but has at the same time laid down a series of security demands - including a ban on Ukraine joining NATO - in exchange for de-escalation.
Referring to naval chief Schoenbach's comments, Germany's defence ministry said he would be asked to explain himself.
In a video posted online that was recorded at a think-tank gathering in New Delhi on Friday, Schoenbach also said Putin 'is to be respected'. 'It's easy to give him the respect he wants, and probably deserves as well,' he said.
Schoenbach said Saturday that the comments were 'thoughtless'. 'There is no need to quibble: it was clearly a mistake,' he tweeted.
Schoenbach's statements 'do not correspond in any way to the position of the Germany defence ministry,' a ministry spokesperson told AFP news agency.
The vice-admiral will have to explain himself to the army chief of staff, the spokesperson added.
Russian troops are massed on Ukraine's border, along with an arsenal of tanks, fighting vehicles, artillery and missiles.
