The Inspector of the German Navy, Kay-Achim Schönbach, is resigning from his post after controversial statements on the Ukraine conflict.
The Ministry of Defense informed the representatives in the Bundestag on Saturday evening, as the German Press Agency learned. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry had previously summoned the German Ambassador to Ukraine, Anka Feldhusen.
The Ministry of Defense in Berlin distanced itself from Schönbach’s statements. He will be replaced “at his own request” and replaced by Rear Admiral Jan Christian Kaack.
“Putin wants respect”
During an appearance in India, Vice Admiral Schönbach expressed his understanding for Russian President Vladimir Putin. “What he really wants is respect on an equal footing. And – my God – showing respect to someone costs almost nothing, costs nothing. So you would ask me: It’s easy to give him the respect he demands – and that he does probably deserved.”
He sees the greater threat in China, he said. “Even we, India, Germany, need Russia because we need Russia against China,” said Schönbach. He is a devout Catholic and Russia is a Christian country – “although Putin is an atheist, it doesn’t matter. Having this big country on our side as a bilateral partner, even if it’s not a democracy, (…) holds possibly Russia away from China.”
“The Crimean peninsula is gone”
Schönbach said of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine: “The Crimean peninsula is gone, it will not come back.” In 2014, Russia annexed the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula of Crimea. Since then, rebels supported by Moscow have been fighting the pro-Western government in Kiev in the east of the country. With a massive Russian troop deployment near Ukraine, there are fears in the West that the Kremlin may be planning an invasion of the neighboring country. Schönbach said that Russia wants to appropriate Ukrainian territory is “nonsense”.
“In terms of content and choice of words, the statements in no way correspond to the position of the Federal Ministry of Defense,” said a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense of the German Press Agency. Schönbach himself reported on Saturday via his official Twitter account: He described his statement as a “clear mistake” and as “imprudent, misjudged the situation”. Several media had previously reported on the process.
For Ukraine, resignation is insufficient
The Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, described Schönbach’s resignation as insufficient and called on the German government to fundamentally change its position in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. “We welcome the fact that Mr. Schönbach has offered his resignation,” Melnyk told the “Welt” according to the preliminary report. However, the scandal left “a shambles” in its wake and “massively questioned Germany’s international credibility and reliability – and not only from the Ukrainian point of view.” Vice-Admiral Schönbach’s statements “shook the entire Ukrainian public in deep shock”.