Responding to German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit’s May 31 statement that the government believes Ukraine’s “defensive action is not limited to its own territory, but [can] also be expanded to the territory of the aggressor,” Bundestag member Sahra Wagenknecht, leader of the party, “Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance—Reason and Justice” (BSW), told Augsburger Allgemeine on May 31: “I call on Olaf Scholz to make a government statement in connection with the change of course.… Anyone who brings war to Russia with German weapons will eventually bring it to Germany. He should explain to the public why it should suddenly no longer be a problem if Ukraine attacks Russian territory with German weapons, even though he himself warned against this for months with reference to the danger of war for our country.”
“Instead of caution, another fiasco, the self-proclaimed peace chancellor becomes a security threat to our country. Like millions of Germans, I fear a further escalation that could one day end in a World War III. If Olaf Scholz approves such attacks with German weapons in the future, we are frighteningly close to a Third World War,” Wagenknecht said. “For two years now, one red line after another has been crossed, putting our country in ever greater danger,” she warned. “Ukraine is not only attacking military targets on Russian territory, but also civilian infrastructure and, if the reports are correct, even an early warning system for strategic nuclear weapons,” she said. “Instead of initiating the next highly dangerous escalation, we should finally respond to the signals from Moscow that it wants to negotiate a ceasefire in order to end the deaths and avoid a terrible escalation of this war,” she concluded.
