Germany, NATO at Loggerheads Over Ukraine Crisis

Germany is striving to avoid a military conflict in Ukraine and souring relations with Russia, while the US is trying to contain Russia and is prepared to go as far as it takes to make it happen, the German television news channel n-tv.de reported.

Recent statements by General Philip Breedlove, the NATO supreme allied commander and head of the US European Command, have antagonized Berlin, resulting in the first open conflict between Germany and the Western defense alliance, Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten wrote.

Describing the conflict as a “surprise”, the publication points to the EU’s “growing resentment of Washington’s anti-Russian strategy”, adding that the “escalation against Russia is being fueled by ‘hawks’ in the US,” including former US national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski.”

General Breedlove said late last month in Washington that the situation in Ukraine was ”getting worse every day”.

On November 12, 2014, during a visit to Bulgaria, General Breedlove told a news conference in Sofia that “We have seen columns of Russian equipment, primarily Russian tanks, Russian artillery, Russian air defense systems and Russian combat troops entering into Ukraine.”

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said, for his part, that information obtained by European sources about the situation in eastern Ukraine “somewhat differs from statements to this effect coming from NATO and US representatives.”

General Breedlove’s statements prompted harsh criticism from Berlin, which blames NATO for hampering a peaceful resolution to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.