Pretoria – The mutiny by Wagner mercenaries last weekend shows that President Vladimir Putin placed Russia’s security on the line by invading Ukraine, Germany’s foreign minister said on Tuesday.
The revolt illustrates that Russia’s war on Ukraine “is not only an attack on Ukraine” but that Putin has “also put the security of his own country in danger,” Annalena Baerbock said in a visit to South Africa.
Baerbock reassured Germany’s support for Ukraine “in humanitarian terms, with a view to the right to self-defence, and economically,” and reiterated an “urgent” appeal for the war to end.
“We as Europeans, as Germany, do not interfere in it. Of course, we are observing the situation very closely,” she said at a joint press conference with her South African counterpart, Naledi Pandor.
Baerbock also thanked South African President Cyril Ramaphosa for leading an African delegation seeking to broker peace between Kyiv and Moscow.
The rebellion by Wagner mercenary group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin sparked Russia’s largest political crisis in decades.
Prigozhin, embroiled in a long-running feud with Russia’s military leadership over the war, ordered his forces to march on Moscow.
He abruptly told them to turn around after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko brokered an end to the crisis.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Getty Images
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