Berlin is increasingly alarmed at ongoing aggressive statements by American supreme commander of NATO, General Philip Breedlove.
“Hawks in Washington seem determined to torpedo Berlin’s [diplomatic] approach” over the Ukraine conflict, reported German media.
Germany also expressed discontent that the violence between the ultranationalist regime in Kiev and the independence supporters in the east is threatening to spill over into a wider war that could involve Russia and the rest of Europe.
Berlin has also lately expressed the view that General Breedlove and US State Department official Victoria Nuland are working together to destabilize the Minsk ceasefire.
The ceasefire was brokered on February 12 after long negotiations led by Russian President Vladimir Putin, along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande.
Although the ceasefire was breached a few times, it nevertheless appears to be largely holding. The widespread violence and shelling of civilian centers by Kiev’s forces have significantly stopped. So, as EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini noted this week at a summit in Riga, Latvia, progress is being made, albeit far from perfectly.
These provocative unfounded claims from the American General were repeated recently by Victoria Nuland. She alleged without any proof that “thousands of Russian troops were in east Ukraine”, report German media.
Leaders in Berlin were stunned when they heard such false provocation. They didn't understand what Breedlove and Nuland were talking about. As German media reported it wasn’t the first time that the German government, supported by intelligence gathered by the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany's foreign intelligence agency, did not share the view of NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe.
It seems now that Berlin and other European NATO members are beginning to wake up to the “dangerous propaganda” that Washington has been selling over the Ukraine crisis.
But the danger is far from over as this month hundreds of US troops are arriving in western Ukraine to begin “training and military exercises” with Kiev’s armed forces, including the criminal National Guard units who have terrorized the civilian population of Donbas over the past year.
Washington appears to be hoping for the Minsk ceasefire to fail and for its Congressionally-approved supply of weapons to Kiev to ensue.
But Berlin and other European capitals are starting to rumble the American game plan, with its absurd propaganda claims and reckless interventions, reports German media.
Nonetheless, Berlin and the rest of Europe need to move fast to reinforce diplomacy with Russia and to prevent Washington’s desire of escalating the conflict to a point of no return.
