Saxony: Kretschmer: skepticism in the east about arms deliveries justified

Dresden (dpa / sn) - Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) can understand his compatriots' skepticism about the delivery of battle tanks to Ukraine.

Saxony: Kretschmer: skepticism in the east about arms deliveries justified

Dresden (dpa / sn) - Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) can understand his compatriots' skepticism about the delivery of battle tanks to Ukraine. "Of course, over the decades that they lived with or under the Russians in the Soviet Union, the people in the new federal states also have a very clear idea of ​​this country, its radicalism and brutality, and the question of what a human life is worth or not is worth," he said on Friday in the political podcast of "Sächsische.de". They would feel a different dismay than people in other regions of Europe.

The prime minister referred to a survey by the opinion research institute Civey, according to which 70 percent of Saxons reject the delivery of Leopard tanks to Ukraine. You have to take this attitude more seriously, he said. It is wrong to reject and present as an impossibility a position that insists on diplomatic initiatives. Russia is the aggressor, Ukraine is defending itself and of course this country needs support. But the question is by what means. "This conflict cannot be resolved on the battlefield, only through diplomatic initiatives."

With a view to earlier German diplomacy, Kretschmer sees Germany in a mediating role. "As the Federal Republic of Germany, we have had a security and defense strategy for decades that consisted of not delivering weapons to war zones and holding back in such conflicts." Now, within weeks and months, everything that was the basis for security architecture over the past decades is dissolving, without there being a new strategy. "I expect that this will be discussed with the population."