Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Germany increases its involvement in the Ukraine War by the day, supplying lethal arms to Kiev that have been used to attack the Russian homeland. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, 64, said Germany weapons given to Kiev were restricted to use only in the war zone inside Ukraine. Peskov said German weapons were used against Russian forces in Donbass where the war centers on the Peoples Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. Peskov told Berlin that because Russia declared Donetsk and Luhansk sovereign territory, German weapons are used by Ukrainian troops against the Russian Federation. Peskov stretches the truth about using German weapons against the Russian homeland. Fighting in Donbass has been going on since 2014, where Putin decided to annex the Crimean Peninsula and starting a war in Donbas.
Putin annexed Donesk, Luhansk Kherson and Zaporizhia Sept. 30, 2022, staking his claim to Ukrainian territory. “First, Germany doesn’t have a way to check. Second, the weapons supplied by German to the Kiev regime are already firing at Russian territory, because the Donbas is a Russian region,” Peskov said. Peskov knows that the international community does not recognize Putin’s claim to sovereignty over Donetsk and Luhansk. At the same time, Ukraine’s problems with the Kremlin started Feb. 22, 2024 when a CIA-backed, pro-Western coup toppled the Kremlin-backed government of Viktor Yanukovych. Russian President Vladimir Putin was hosting the Sochi Winter Olympics at the time, preventing Putin from responding more quickly. Once the Games ended, Putin immediately annexed Crimea to protect his Sevastopol naval base, leased to Russia by the Yanukovych government.
Once Yanukovych was ousted from Kiev, it started the downward spiral leading to the Feb. 24, 2022 Ukraine War. Putin couldn’t accept U.S. President Joe Biden, 80, arming Ukraine to the teeth, compromising Russian national security. Biden refused over several months of Putin’s requests to renegotiate appropriate security arrangement for Ukraine. Biden told Putin that his new security arrangement were a “non-starters,” refusing to negotiate a new security deal. Ukraine’s 45-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky provoked Putin by asking for NATO membership. Putin knows now that NATO rejected Zelensky’s overtures for NATO membership, saying it would take a long time before that could realistically happen. Putin told Biden in Dec. 2021 that he would be forced to take “Special Military operations” should the two superpowers not resolve security issues with Ukraine.
Peskov warns Germany that the more weapons it supplies to Kiev, the more Moscow sees Germany as a direct combatant. Peskov said Germany’s “direct and indirect involvement” was increasing daily. “The German chancellor should take that as his starting point,” serving notice that he sees Germany as directly participating in Biden’s proxy war against the Kremlin. Much of the fighting in Ukraine has centered on Donbas, the region that house Donetsk and Luhansk. Expecting a new Ukrainian counteroffensive to start any day, Peskov wants Germany to know that he considers arms deliveries to Ukraine direct involvement in the war. Since losing some 25% of Ukraine’s sovereign territory in the first year of war, Zelensky want to reclaim lost sovereign territory before he’s willing to discus peace talks. Moscow wants Germany to play a role in peace talks, not escalating the conflict.
Once Ukraine starts its counteroffensive, Peskov will have some sense of where the war’s going. Over the winter, Ukraine has battled Russia to a stalemate, with most military analysts not seeing the war changes even with new U.S. and NATO arms shipments to Kiev. Putin wants Biden and Zelensky to take his peace proposals seriously, with Chinese President Xi Jimping helping to broker a peace deal between Moscow and Kiev. Zelensky and Biden have ignored Beijing’s peace overtures, stating that Moscow must remove all its forces from Ukraine to start an peace talks. Putin has said that gains made in Ukraine, especially in Donbas and Crimea cannot be part of any peace talks. Unless there’s a breakthrough soon, the war could escalate quickly with both sides stepping up battle plans. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Miley said there is only a political solution to Ukraine.
Peskov wants German Chancellor Scholz to take a more active role in brokering a ceasefire and peace talks to end the conflict. Supplying more arms to Kiev only postpones the inevitable peace talks, something that would benefit both sides. If Zelensky wants to get back his lost sovereign land, he needs to start a dialog with neutral third parties that seek to end the conflict. Biden and Zelensky think that more war will get back lost Ukrainian territory, something Putn says won’t happen. Peskov wants to see Germany playing a constructive role in ending the conflict, not blindly supplying arms to Ukraine with an expectation that more war will lead to pace. Putn wants Kiev to stop racking arms from the U.S. .and NATO to battle the Kremlin but instead work out the broad contours of a peace settlement designed to satisfy all parties. More tanks, missiles or F-16 fighter jets won’t end the conflict.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma .
