Video
Chief of the Navy Schönbach resigned after controversial statements
The German Navy Chief Kay-Achim Schönbach resigns after controversial statements on the Ukraine conflict. “I have just asked the Federal Minister of Defense to release me from my duties and duties as inspector of the Navy with immediate effect,” Schönbach announced on Saturday evening. The commander of the fleet and deputy inspector of the navy, Rear Admiral Kaack, will lead the German navy until a successor decision is made. Schönbach described his statements on Twitter as a mistake. He had given his personal opinion, not the position of the Bundeswehr. According to his own statements, the 56-year-old spoke in a round of talks at a think tank in India. This video recording of it had been circulated on the Internet. He said of Putin: “What he really wants is respect.” Showing respect to someone costs little or nothing. “It’s easy to give him the respect he really demands and probably deserves.” “The Crimean peninsula is gone, it will never come back, that’s a fact,” says Schönbach there in English. Schönbach has thus contradicted the position represented by Germany and its partners. The Federal Ministry of Defense distanced itself from Schönbach’s statements. As inspector of the navy, he has been in charge of the German naval forces since March of last year. Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 in an internationally unrecognized step and also supports separatists in eastern Ukraine. Currently, Moscow has concentrated around 100,000 soldiers near the Ukrainian border
During a visit to India, the vice admiral spoke, among other things, about the annexation of Crimea by Russia and thus contradicted Germany’s position. Before his resignation, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry had summoned the German ambassador to the country.