German military loses chief of navy, who called for respect for Putin

In Germany, head of the NATO country’s navy has resigned after saying that Russia was not planning to attack Ukraine, but rather Russian President Vladimir Putin was seeking respect from the West, British public broadcaster the BBC reports.
Amid heightened tensions between Russia, Ukraine, NATO and the EU over the amassing of Russian troops near its border with Ukraine and demands to the US and NATO, vice admiral Kay-Achim Schönbach evaluated that the idea that Russia wanted to invade Ukraine was nonsense.
The Russian government has also maintained that it had no such plans.
On Friday, January 21, the Inspector of the Navy of the German Navy made the controversial comments, when speaking at a think-tank discussion in India and the video was later published to social media. According to the video, Schönbach evaluated that Putin needed to be treated as an equal by the West. «It is easy to give him the respect he really demands – and also probably deserves,» Schönbach noted, adding that the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014, «is gone and will never come back».
The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticised the comments as «categorically unacceptable». They were also in contrast with the statements of the German federal government, which was voiced and provides support to Ukraine. Schönbach stated on Saturday, January 22, that he had resigned from his role «with immediate effect» in order to «avert further damage», the BBC reports.