German citizens should be willing to endure hardship and deprivation to help in the war effort against Russia, a Ukrainian government minister has said.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has told the German people that they should be willing to put themselves in a position of deprivation in order to help his nation’s war effort against Russia.
The comments come as Germany, alongside the other six members of the G7, condemned Moscow for allegedly blockading ports in Ukraine, and by extension preventing millions of tons of essential food exports from leaving the embattled country.
In an interview with the German publication Bild, Minister Kuleba said that Germans should be willing to go through hardship for the sake of his country, saying that it was in Germany’s interest.
“Sometimes it’s better to help someone else and endure a short period of deprivation than to sit at home, watch TV, and do nothing, just allow the problem to eventually knock on your door,” the Ukrainian is reported as saying.
“Give us everything we need and we will contain Russia and defeat it in Ukraine so that they never come knocking on your door,” he continued, claiming that the arrangement was a fair deal for Germany.
Kuleba also claimed that those in Germany who have been sympathetic to Putin were “partly to blame for the war” and suggested that “animals behave better than Russians”.
The Ukrainian official’s demands come as the G7 promises to continue providing arms to Ukraine for as long as necessary, and that it will never recognise Russian territorial acquisitions in the region.
The G7 also condemned Moscow for its alleged ongoing blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, which it says will now put tens of millions at risk of famine as a result of millions of tons of agricultural produce not being able to leave the besieged nation.
“Russia’s unprovoked and premeditated war of aggression has exacerbated the global economic outlook with sharply rising food, fuel and energy prices,” The Guardian reports a joint statement by the organisation as reading.
“Combined with Russia blocking the exit routes for Ukraine’s grain, the world is now facing a worsening state of food insecurity and malnutrition,” the statement continued.
“This is at a time when 43 million people were already one step away from famine.”
This warning echoes those made by officials from a variety of other organisations, including the United Nations’ food programme, which in a joint report on world hunger warned that the ongoing crisis poses dire consequences for parts of the globe which are food insecure.
“Acute hunger is soaring to unprecedented levels and the global situation just keeps on getting worse,” said the programme’s head, former South Carolina governor David Beasley.
“Conflict, the climate crisis, COVID-19 and surging food and fuel costs have created a perfect storm — and now we’ve got the war in Ukraine piling catastrophe on top of catastrophe,” the U.S. politician continued.
“Millions of people in dozens of countries are being driven to the edge of starvation.”