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The German government revealed on Wednesday that it has expelled seven Ukrainian troops undergoing military training in the country for sporting Nazi symbols.
Berlin, however, attempted to downplay the potential threat posed by Ukrainian far-right nationalists to any future peace process between Kiev and Moscow. According to the German military’s estimates, “around 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers were trained by German and multinational units on German soil in 2023.” Under the European Union Military Assistance Mission Ukraine (EUMAM UA) established in November 2022, German instructors and those from several other member states have trained Ukrainian military personnel. In a reply to an inquiry made by the right-wing Alternative for Germany Party (AFD), the German government wrote that “within the framework of training for the Ukrainian armed forces conducted by the Bundeswehr, seven cases have been established where soldiers were wearing far-right extremist symbols.” The document further revealed that these troops had been removed from the course and sent home. Incoming Ukrainian military personnel are warned against the use of Nazi insignias on arrival, the German government said. The reply noted that Berlin “sees no threat to a possible peace process in Ukraine [posed] by Ukrainian extremist nationalists.” “It is Russia’s imperialism that underlies the illegal Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, and that threatens security in Europe,” the document said. Upon the launch of Russia’s military operation against the neighbouring state in February 2022, President Vladimir Putin listed the “denazification” of Ukraine as one of Moscow’s main goals. Russian officials have for years expressed concern over the growing role of far-right elements within the Ukrainian government and military. Moscow has also claimed that some units within Kiev’s army are made up almost exclusively of neo-Nazis. Ukraine’s glorification of WWII-era nationalist partisans who collaborated with Nazi Germany, as well as Ukrainian SS units, has also been condemned not only by Russia, but also neighbouring Poland. Despite these criticisms, monuments to honour these figures continue to be erected across Ukraine, with streets renamed after them in some cases as well. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Poland cannot give Ukraine any US-made Patriot missile systems because it does not have the full system for its own defense, Polish President Andrzej Duda reiterated on Tuesday.
Kiev has been asking its Western backers to provide more long-range air defense systems to repel Russian strikes. Poland has only just started receiving the first elements of the Patriot surface-to-air batteries that it ordered from the US seven years ago, Duda told Bloomberg at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha. Warsaw is currently in the process of building its own defense shield, part of which will be formed by the Patriot, he added. “It’s difficult to say right now if we could be providing Patriot systems to Ukraine because, as a matter of fact, we still do not have the system in Poland, we do not have it complete to provide for our own defense,” Duda stated. Ukraine earlier received several Patriot launchers, each of which costs more than $1 billion, from the US, Germany, and the Netherlands. The Financial Times reported in April that Kiev was lobbying Poland, Spain and Romania for batteries to be donated. Both Duda and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated last month that Poland didn’t have any Patriot missile systems available to donate to Ukraine. Germany and Spain recently agreed to send additional batteries to Kiev. Greece ruled out a donation, and Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said some members of his government were against the idea of sharing such weapons. Poland has already donated $4 billion worth of weapons to Ukraine, including more than 300 battle tanks and Soviet-designed MiG 29 fighter jets, Duda said on Tuesday. Poland is modernizing its armed forces, and it must replace what it donated to Ukraine, he added. Warsaw spends 4% of its GDP on defense, which is higher than NATO´s 2.5% target. The Polish leader reiterated the claim that if Russia is allowed to win in Ukraine, it will keep attacking, and may target other neighboring countries. The Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – have increasingly voiced fears that they could be next. That would be “a huge threat to the whole world,” Duda said. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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At 9.30am on Tuesday, authorities descended upon the Warsaw and Rotterdam offices of Nuctech, a Chinese manufacturer of airport scanning machines.
In the sort of raids usually reserved for busting cartels, officers seized IT equipment and mobile phones. They also “scrutinised office documents and demanded access to pertinent data”, according the China Chamber of Commerce to the EU, which lobbies for Chinese business interests in the bloc. The “competition officers” – from Brussels, Poland and the Netherlands – were looking for evidence of financial help that Nuctech may have received from the Chinese government. In Brussels policy circles, Tuesday’s raids were about as dramatic as it gets, and the revelations – first revealed by the South China Morning Post – sent shock waves through the EU. They suggest that the European Commission has moved to a new stage in cracking down on what it views as one of the biggest risk to the Eurozone economy: foreign subsidies from Beijing, which it believes are causing industrial overcapacity that could see Europe flooded with cheap Chinese imports. On Wednesday, Chinese businesses in Europe were still reeling from the raids, which stunned even the competition lawyers advising these companies. “This action surprised even me – a dawn raid in Europe to find out more information about subsidies granted in China makes no sense,” said Andreas Reindl, managing partner at Brussels law firm Van Bael & Bellis, which specialises in competition law. Reindl, who published a book in January about the new foreign subsidies regulation (FSR) under which the inspections occurred, described the raids as “political gamesmanship”, adding that the target – Nuctech – is probably “also perplexed and doesn’t know anything about the FSR”. But if Chinese businesses want to continue working in Europe, they had better learn about it fast. Since January, the EU has wielded the weapon, which was adopted last year, four times. On each occasion, it has targeted Chinese companies. The FSR is designed to root out “market-distorting” handouts, by forcing non-European entities to be as transparent about what they have received as firms from the bloc, which are subject to stringent state aid disclosure rules. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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