German Defense Minister responds to Putin's demand to stop military aid to Ukraine
Photo: German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (Vitalii Nosach/RBC-Ukraine)
Vladimir Putin is "playing games" with Ukraine by demanding the cessation of military and intelligence support from the West. This condition is unacceptable, The Guardian reports, citing German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.
"We've seen that attacks on civilian infrastructure have not eased at all in the first night after this supposedly groundbreaking, great phone call between Putin and US President Donald Trump," Pistorius said in a TV interview, quoted by AFP.
The German Minister also called the persistent demand by the Kremlin that a complete cessation of Western military and intelligence support for Ukraine's armed forces be a "key condition" for peace "unacceptable."
"This is very transparent," Pistorius said, adding that Putin seeks to prevent Ukraine's supporters from "further supporting Ukraine and enabling it to really defend itself if there is another attack, during or after a ceasefire."
On March 18, a phone conversation took place between US President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Putin refused to approve a full 30-day ceasefire and demanded that military aid to Ukraine be halted. Immediately after the Trump-Putin conversation, Russian forces attacked Ukraine with drones.
For more details on the conversation, read our article on the topic.
