German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has called Russia's war against Ukraine a murderous crime.
Speaking at a lunch with the diplomatic corps in the Bavarian city of Nuremberg on Tuesday, Steinmeier said the international community must oppose this imperial warmongering.
"We must make a stand. We owe that to the many courageous people in Ukraine who are resisting day after day," he said in the Carthusian Church of the Germanic National Museum.
The president invited the approximately 150 ambassadors sent to Germany and representatives of international organizations on an information and encounter trip to the Bavarian region of Franconia, where Nuremberg is located.
The Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, who is currently under massive pressure and is having to defend himself against accusations of trivializing the Holocaust, was not among the guests.
The war in Ukraine is bringing horrific suffering to millions of people, he said. "It is a murderous crime" for which Russia's President Vladimir Putin alone is responsible, Steinmeier said.
After the current price increases for energy and other goods, there could be real shortages next year. The wealthier states had a duty to help the poorer ones, he said.
Germany stands firmly and resolutely by Ukraine's side, he assured. "That means first and foremost that we support Ukraine politically and militarily." That Ukraine is now a candidate for admission to the EU is more than just a symbolic act, he said.
Russia's attack on a state with internationally recognized borders is also an attack on the rules-based world order, he said. "A world where law-breaking, invasion and brutality become the norm is a worse world for all of us. We must not accept this!" said Steinmeier.
