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Germany Says Russia Will Pay Price if it Moves on Ukraine

Greens co-Chief Annalena Baerbock looks on as she gives a statement following last night's meeting with the leadership of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) in Berlin, Germany, September 29, 2021. (Reuters)
Greens co-Chief Annalena Baerbock looks on as she gives a statement following last night's meeting with the leadership of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) in Berlin, Germany, September 29, 2021. (Reuters)
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Germany Says Russia Will Pay Price if it Moves on Ukraine

Greens co-Chief Annalena Baerbock looks on as she gives a statement following last night's meeting with the leadership of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) in Berlin, Germany, September 29, 2021. (Reuters)
Greens co-Chief Annalena Baerbock looks on as she gives a statement following last night's meeting with the leadership of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) in Berlin, Germany, September 29, 2021. (Reuters)

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Monday that she hoped mounting tensions with Russia over Ukraine could be solved by diplomacy, but she warned that Moscow would suffer if it does attack the country.

"Each further aggressive act will have a high price for Russia, economically, strategically, politically," Baerbock, in Kyiv on a trip that will next take her to Moscow, told a joint news conference with her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba. "Diplomacy is the only way."

Talks between Moscow and Western states on Russia's deployment of tens of thousands of troops along Ukraine's border ended with no breakthrough last week. A cyber attack against Ukraine has further inflamed tensions.

Kuleba said Ukraine and Germany were united in pushing to revive four-way peace talks on ending the war in eastern Ukraine in the so-called "Normandy" format, which includes Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia.

Excluded from much of last week's talks, Ukraine has repeatedly sought and received reassurances from allies that no decisions would be taken about its future without its involvement and assent.

"It is important for us now that neither Berlin nor Paris makes any decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine, and does not play any game behind our backs in relations with Russia. This is the key now," Kuleba said at the briefing. "For this I want to thank Annalena for taking such a principled position."

Germany has supported Ukraine with aid and diplomatic backing in its standoff with Moscow since Russia seized the Crimean peninsula and backed separatists in the Donbass region in 2014.

But there are points of contention. Ukraine opposes Nord Stream 2, a pipeline, yet to open, that would ship Russian gas to Germany, circumventing transit through Ukraine. Baerbock said the pipeline was now on hold and did not comply with European energy law.

Kyiv has also bristled at Berlin's refusal to sell weapons to Ukraine. Ukraine's ambassador to Germany called the decision "very frustrating and bitter" in an interview with German media ahead of Baerbock's visit.

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Landmine Victims Gather to Protest US Decision to Supply Ukraine

Activists and landmine survivors hold placards against the US decision to supply anti-personnel landmines to Ukrainian forces amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, during the Siem Reap-Angkor Summit on a Mine free World landmine conference in Siem Reap province on November 26, 2024. (AFP)
Activists and landmine survivors hold placards against the US decision to supply anti-personnel landmines to Ukrainian forces amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, during the Siem Reap-Angkor Summit on a Mine free World landmine conference in Siem Reap province on November 26, 2024. (AFP)
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Landmine Victims Gather to Protest US Decision to Supply Ukraine

Activists and landmine survivors hold placards against the US decision to supply anti-personnel landmines to Ukrainian forces amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, during the Siem Reap-Angkor Summit on a Mine free World landmine conference in Siem Reap province on November 26, 2024. (AFP)
Activists and landmine survivors hold placards against the US decision to supply anti-personnel landmines to Ukrainian forces amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, during the Siem Reap-Angkor Summit on a Mine free World landmine conference in Siem Reap province on November 26, 2024. (AFP)

Landmine victims from across the world gathered at a conference in Cambodia on Tuesday to protest the United States' decision to give landmines to Ukraine, with Kyiv's delegation expected to report at the meet.

More than 100 protesters lined the walkway taken by delegates to the conference venue in Siem Reap where countries are reviewing progress on the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty.

"Look what antipersonnel landmines will do to your people," read one placard held by two landmine victims.

Alex Munyambabazi, who lost a leg to a landmine in northern Uganda in 2005, said he "condemned" the decision by the US to supply antipersonnel mines to Kyiv as it battles Russian forces.

"We are tired. We don't want to see any more victims like me, we don't want to see any more suffering," he told AFP.

"Every landmine planted is a child, a civilian, a woman, who is just waiting for their legs to be blown off, for his life to be taken.

"I am here to say we don't want any more victims. No excuses, no exceptions."

Washington's announcement last week that it would send anti-personnel landmines to Kyiv was immediately criticized by human rights campaigners.

Ukraine is a signature to the treaty. The United States and Russia are not.

Ukraine using the US mines would be in "blatant disregard for their obligations under the mine ban treaty," said Tamar Gabelnick, director of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.

"These weapons have no place in today´s warfare," she told AFP.

"[Ukraine's] people have suffered long enough from the horrors of these weapons."

A Ukrainian delegation was present at the conference on Tuesday, and it was expected to present its report on progress in clearing mines on its territory.