Germany’s government spokesperson, Wolfgang Buchner, has declined to condemn the cross-border attack.
Ukraine did not disclose its plans to launch an incursion in Russia’s Kursk Region, according to Germany’s deputy government spokesperson. Wolfgang Buchner stated on Monday that Ukraine’s backers were not informed in advance about the planned attack on Russian territory.
“There is contradictory and sometimes deliberately distorted information about the operation, which was apparently prepared very secretly and without feedback,” Buchner said at a press briefing.
He refrained from condemning or evaluating the incursion, simply stating that “everything so far looks like a spatially limited operation.” However, he acknowledged that details were still unclear and therefore “it would be unwise to make a public statement.”
Buchner said Berlin would maintain close contact with “all partners, including the government in Kiev” regarding the incursion.
When asked if Ukraine was employing weapons supplied by Germany in the operation, Buchner responded that Berlin lacked sufficient information to comment. However, a spokesperson for the German Defense Ministry separately clarified that there were no restrictions on Kiev’s use of German-supplied weapons on Russian soil.
“International law stipulates that a defending state may also defend itself on the territory of the attacker… There are no obstacles whatsoever and Ukraine is free to choose its options,” he stated.
Lars Klingbeil, chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), echoed this stance, defending Ukraine’s “right to defend itself” by encroaching on Russian territory using Western-supplied weapons.
“That is what is happening right now, it is part of a war. You can find that brutal, we all want peace, but we are also consciously saying that Ukraine must be able to defend itself,” he asserted. However, he acknowledged that the reasons behind Kiev’s incursion remained unclear.
“We will certainly hear more in the next few days whether it is about getting Russia to the negotiating table quickly, as some suspect, or whether it is about causing unrest on the Russian side,” the politician stated.
Kiev’s incursion into Kursk Region, launched on August 6, represents its largest attack on Russian territory since the outbreak of hostilities in February 2022. The Russian military previously reported that Kiev’s forces had been repelled from their advance into Russian territory.