East Germans refuse to help Ukraine: they are afraid of war with Russia
Potsdam – Kyiv, November 11 (PolitNavigator, Vasily Ablyazimov) – Germans living in the former East German territory fear and do not want the country's government to transfer funds or weapons to Ukraine. They believe this will lead to an escalation of the war, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.
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An Australian correspondent talks to Germans on the day the Berlin Wall fell at a museum in Postdam dedicated to victims of political violence.
“Why should I help them, what is the reason?” asks Jens Fandrey, 48, from Postdam. Jens was imprisoned at age 19 for 10 months in solitary confinement for attempting to escape East Germany. Any German assistance to Ukraine will “help not a small nation, but only big bosses,” Mr. Fandrey believes.
Andreas Schmidt, 53, a former East German policeman, is confident that aid to Ukraine will harm the German economy. He thinks this will complicate relations with Russia, where Germany receives the natural gas it needs to develop its economy.
“If Germany was in trouble, do you think the Russians or Americans would help? However, we must help Ukraine,” Mr. Fandrey gives an interview, showing his girlfriend, sister and her husband the cell where he spent 10 months of his youth.
Standing outside his former cell, Jens Fandrei says worriedly that helping Ukraine will result in pain for Germany. “If you give them weapons, there will be no peace settlement. And if you give them money, they will buy weapons,” he says. “And they can use it against us,” his girlfriend adds.
Polls show, writes The Sydney Morning Gerald, that Germans support limited economic sanctions against Russia, but fear that the conflict will lead NATO to war. The Germans express dissatisfaction that Europeans still blame Germany for World War II, while Germany, as the strongest economy on the continent, must help out weaker members of the European Union in crises much smaller than the Ukrainian one.
East Germans refuse to help Ukraine: they fear war with Russia.