Germany’s navy chief has resigned, hours after his remarks at a New Delhi think-tank on “Putin deserves respect” amid the crisis in Ukraine, a spokesman for the country’s defense ministry said on Saturday.
Kay-Achim Schoenbach said the idea that Russia wanted to invade Ukraine was “nonsense”, adding that Putin deserves respect, in comments at a think-tank meeting in New Delhi on Friday.
The spokesman told AFP the vice admiral would step down “with immediate effect”.
In a video filmed at the New Delhi meeting, Schoenbach said what Putin wanted was “to be respected”.
“It’s easy to give him the respect he wants, and maybe he deserves it too,” he said.
He also said that the Crimean peninsula, which Russia seceded from Ukraine in 2014, was gone and that Ukraine would not return.
On Saturday, Schönbach clarified that his comments did not represent the government’s view and that they were misguided.
“No need to fret: this was clearly a mistake,” he tweeted.
In a statement later on Saturday, he said he had submitted his resignation “to avoid any further harm to the German Navy and, above all, to the German Federal Republic”.
Earlier on Saturday, the Ukrainian foreign minister summoned Germany’s ambassador to Kiev to protest the “clear unacceptability” of Schoenbach’s comments.
(with AFP input)
read all breaking news, today’s fresh news And coronavirus news Here.
,