MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th February, 2022) Ukraine should be vigorously reminded to act more constructively and uphold its end of the Normandy agreements, German lawmakers told Sputnik on Thursday.
"Ukraine is not sufficiently reminded of its constructive contribution within the framework of the Normandy forum. Russia is admonished unilaterally, but Ukraine also has its homework to do as well. When there is no pressure here, Ukraine will always exploit loopholes," Steffen Kotre, a lawmaker from the right-wing AfD party, said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy refused on Monday to meet with visiting German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock over what the presidency said was a scheduling error. But CNN cited a source in the Ukrainian administration as saying that the real reason was Germany's reluctance to abandon the Nord Stream 2 gas link with Russia and send arms to Ukraine.
Kotre, who sits on the German parliament's committee on climate action and energy, said that Zelenskyy's snub of the top German diplomat added insult to injury after the Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin bluntly demanded weapons from Berlin, saying it owed Kiev for millions of lives lost to the Nazi occupation. Kotre said Ukraine had also been blocking the Nord Stream launch, after the German regulator included it in the pipeline's certification procedures in fall.
"Germany, as one of Ukraine's largest donors, has already put up with far too much by the Ukrainian government, for instance that Ukraine is interfering with the Nord Stream 2 project and blocking agreements with Russia rather than cooperating constructively, or in the excessive criticism of the fact that Germany does not supply weapons to crisis regions," he said.
Harald Weyel, an AfD member on the parliament's EU affairs committee, told Sputnik that by refusing to meet with Baerbock, Zelenskyy signaled that he did not mean to solve the conflict in his country's east, undermining the four-way Normandy process.
"Zelenskyy behaves like an inexperienced politician or capricious child. He accepts only such offers as benefit him, ignoring the interests of others. I think this behavior will affect the Normandy Format and its work," he said.
Alexander Ulrich, also a member of the EU affairs committee from the left-wing Die Linke party, told Sputnik that an end to the standoff over Ukraine required all sides to be respected equally.
"A resolution in the current conflict over Ukraine can only be found if all sides are listened to and are equally valued. This of course also includes understanding the Russian interests. Once again this is something I try to bring forward in parliament," he said.
The German government is divided over the Russian gas pipeline, even as Russia insists that it is not trying to weaponize natural gas exports to Europe. Ulrich said that continued economic cooperation with the eastern neighbor could serve as a "stabilizing factor" in the region and reduce the risk of a full-blown conflict in Ukraine.
