American Media Report “Tension” Between US and Ukraine as German Spiegel Urges Berlin to Unblock Arms Sales to Ukraine

Ukraine's Defense Ministry also denied Reuters' report that Russia had allegedly delivered blood supplies to troops near the Ukrainian border.

American outlets CNN and Politico , citing anonymous “high-ranking” sources in the US government, reported that tensions are rising between the administration of US President Joe Biden and Ukraine's leadership over disagreements about the likelihood of a further Russian invasion.

Meanwhile, the German publication Spiegel in its article called on the German government to lift its veto on sales of defensive weapons to Ukraine.

“Tension” with the US

Unnamed “sources” told CNN that tensions are rising between Zelensky and officials in the Biden administration over disagreements about how to interpret and publicly present US intelligence assessments, which say Russia may be preparing a large-scale attack on Ukraine.

According to the outlet, Ukraine is worried that it is being used as a “pawn in a geopolitical drama” between the United States and Russia.

Although the White House seeks to provide Kyiv with maximum support, including through military equipment deliveries and new funding, some officials privately say Zelensky's government is receiving support without much gratitude, the text says.

“It would be far more beneficial for Kyiv to take active deterrent measures, such as immediate sanctions against Nord Stream 2, than to keep issuing insistent verbal warnings about an inevitable war over the past several months, which provide no deterrence and in fact unintentionally harm the Ukrainian economy,” a Zelensky adviser told CNN.

It is noted that Biden and his advisers were irritated by Zelensky's public downplaying of the threat and by thinly veiled jabs at the US president, and believe that public warnings and threats to Russia of serious consequences are key to deterrence.

“We have questions: why are you starting a quarrel with the US?... Why are you leaking and distorting information when the US is one of your only real friends? And why ask for more weapons if you say the threat hasn't changed?” a US official told the outlet, addressing the Ukrainian side.

Politico, citing two other outlets, also reports that Zelensky's behavior irritates the US president's administration.

“According to three sources in the administration and on Capitol Hill with whom I have spoken over the past couple of months, the Ukrainian president alternately irritates, outrages, and behaves completely counterproductively,” the article says.

NatSec Daily journalists have also repeatedly heard this view, and the January 27 Biden-Zelensky call allegedly “did not fix the situation,” the article notes.

The American side has so far neither denied nor endorsed this position, but it is worth noting that these two major outlets have repeatedly been caught publishing fakes and disinformation about Ukraine, which in the end could only benefit the Russian side. 

Spiegel calls on Germany to begin arms deliveries to Ukraine

The German magazine Spiegel called on its government not to block arms sales to Ukraine. This is stated in an editorial article by the outlet titled “Germany's Delay Makes War More Likely.”

Spiegel notes that Berlin's reluctance to sell weapons to Ukraine has raised questions about Germany's reliability not only in Kyiv but also among Western allies.

The outlet recalls that Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock cite Germany's principle of not exporting weapons to crisis regions.

“There are good reasons for this attitude. Weapons can help escalate a conflict. They can fall into the wrong hands, as happened in Afghanistan after the Taliban's victory. But political principles can lead to wrong results in individual cases,” the outlet notes.

The outlet also cites the example of 2014, when the Islamic State threatened to seize Kurdish towns and villages in northern Iraq, and the Bundeswehr equipped Kurdish Peshmerga fighters with grenade launchers. Thus, German weapons helped stop the Islamists' advance.

“This broke a taboo, as Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen openly acknowledged. And yet it was right. From the standpoint of Scholz and Baerbock, the situation in Ukraine does not justify breaking the taboo,” the outlet laments.

“Arms deliveries may be militarily ineffective. However, they would send a signal to Putin that the West is united in opposing his threats. It would demonstrate the common will of Europeans to resist the policy of big states toward violating international law. Whether weapons for Ukraine can prevent war, no one knows. But it is certain that disagreements make war more likely,” Spiegel notes.

The outlet also points out that German Social Democrats like to refer to the “suffering” Germany inflicted on Russia during World War II, but do not speak of the suffering of Ukrainians and other peoples of the former Soviet Union.

Spiegel believes Germany should at least not obstruct its partners from supplying weapons to Ukraine, recalling that Estonia is still waiting for Berlin's response to be able to deliver howitzers from GDR stocks to Kyiv.

The outlet also calls the German delivery of 5,000 helmets to Ukraine a rather absurd signal.

Refuting Reuters report

Ukraine's Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said that information previously reported by Reuters about Russia moving blood supplies to the Ukrainian border is untrue and is an element of information-psychological warfare.

Hanna Maliar
Deputy Defense Minister of Ukraine

Information is currently spreading online, citing anonymous sources, that Russia allegedly sent blood supplies and other medical materials for the wounded to the Ukrainian border.

Maliar noted that this information is untrue. “Such ‘news’ is an element of information-psychological warfare,” the defense ministry official said.

According to Maliar, the aim of such information is “to spread panic and fear in our society,” since it could signal the final stages of Russia's preparations for a full-scale invasion.

On January 28, the American agency Reuters, which works in close cooperation with the pro-Kremlin TASS, citing three unnamed American officials, reported that Russia allegedly is accumulating blood supplies and medical materials in troops stationed near Ukraine's borders.