German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her belief that sending weapons to Ukraine would not lead to progress in achieving peace. The West and its
ADVERTISEMENTGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her belief that sending weapons to Ukraine would not lead to progress in achieving peace.
The West and its allies the US are united in their aims to help end the conflict but could the means to do so prove to be divisive?
General Philip Breedlove, NATO’s top commander said at the Munich conference the west should not rule out the military option.
Could this be falling for a Russian tactic., is Mr Putin trying to divide the West? That’s a question which euronews correspondent James Franey put to Wolfgang Ischinger the Chairman of the Munich Security Conference.
“Of course.,” he replied and continued: “We have imposed sanctions, from a Russian point of view this is not only an unfriendly act, this is a terribly unfriendly act and if I were a Russian adviser I would say let’s do our best to divide these people so that they can not extend the sanctions regime into yet another period that is obviously the Russian interest, it has to be.”
But more sanctions are set to be applied. It’s believed the Russian Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov will be the latest high profile target of a new set of sanctions to be endorsed by EU foreign ministers on Monday,
James Franey reporting from Munich said: “With the United States appearing to favour arming the Ukrainian military with defensive lethal aid there appears to be gaps opening up as to how the West should deal with the crisis. European officials here insist they have no intention of doing so. The only one who wins in all this is Mr. Putin.”