But in a post-interview commentary, Melnyk interviewer Sabine Adler suggested that Ukraine already has an enormous armory, and is fully capable of creating the weapons systems it requires for itself.
"If there is something Ukraine has an abundance of, it is armaments," the journalist wrote. Accordingly, she added, Berlin should refuse to deliver such weapons, not only in the interest of preserving the fragile peace in the east of the country, but "because Kiev's desire for them is simply incomprehensible."
"Why does Ukraine, which has been a gigantic weapons producer for decades, and one of the largest arms exporters in the world, not manufacture these weapons themselves, if they need them so badly?" Adler asked.
The journalist warned that if Germany jumps in, it would jeopardize its role as an honest broker in the conflict.
And the request for lethal weapons isn't the only area where Kiev is acting in an inconsistent manner, Adler complained. For example, the much-promised fight against corruption continues even at the level of the presidential administration, with President Poroshenko still not fulfilling the promise made during his election campaign two years ago to sell his companies. "Instead, he has installed similar [oligarchic] clan structures, of the kind that the Maidan protests were directed against," the journalist noted.
Moscow has repeatedly warned Western countries against providing lethal weaponry to Ukraine, suggesting that the move would only exacerbate the civil war in the country's war-torn Donetsk and Lugansk regions. Officials in some Western capitals have responded accordingly, suggested that the provision of lethal weapons to Kiev could have deadly consequences. Last year, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned that providing such weapons could lead to a 'point of no return' in the civil war.
