MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Germany’s involvement in the Ukraine conflict was growing by the day, and that Berlin had no way of ensuring that weapons it had provided to Ukraine would not be used against Russian territory.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said German-supplied weapons were already being used in the Donbas region, which Russia has declared its own, a step Ukraine and the West have dismissed as illegal.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Monday that Germany had insisted, like other NATO member countries, that the weapons it is supplying to Ukraine must not be used against Russian territory.
But Peskov told reporters: “First, Germany doesn’t have a way to check. Second, the weapons supplied by Germany to the Kyiv regime are already firing at Russian territory, because the Donbas is a Russian region.”
He said Germany’s “direct and indirect involvement” in the conflict was increasing, adding: “The German chancellor should take that as his starting point.”
The two regions of eastern Ukraine collectively known as the Donbas have been the focus of fighting between Ukraine and Russian or Russian-backed forces since 2014.
Russia unilaterally annexed them last year, along with two other Ukrainian regions, despite not fully controlling them.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Kevin Liffey; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
