German Foreign Minister Annalena Bayerbok blamed Bucha’s reports directly for the deportations, saying they underscored the Kremlin’s “incredible barbarity” and that “we must confront this inhumanity with the power of our freedom and our humanity.” “The government has therefore decided today to reluctantly declare a significant number of members of the Russian embassy working here in Germany daily against our freedom, against the cohesion of our society,” Baerbock said, adding that she had informed the Russian ambassador that we tolerate this anymore “. A spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry did not name Buha an official statement, but said France would expel “many” Russian diplomats “whose activities run counter to our security interests”. After the Ukrainians captured cities such as Butsa around Kyiv from Russian troops, officials and NGOs said at the weekend that Russian forces had slaughtered and raped civilians, posting graphic images that have been condemned internationally. Bayerbok promised that sanctions against Moscow would be increased in response. “We will continue to tighten existing sanctions against Russia, resolutely increase our support for the Ukrainian armed forces and also strengthen the eastern side of NATO,” he said. Reports from Bucha have intensified debate in Germany over whether the country should immediately and immediately end Russian energy imports in order to hurt the Kremlin financially and send a clear signal of support to Ukraine – a move that requires so much Kyiv as well as neighboring Poland. However, Chancellor Olaf Soltz and Economy Minister Robert Habeck have so far warned that a hasty decision could cause a huge recession in Europe and could do more harm than good to all sides, although many economists and other politicians disagree. Earlier Monday, Habeck announced that the German subsidiary of Russian gas company Gazprom would be temporarily placed under state control in a further escalation of the energy conflict surrounding the war in Ukraine. “The government is doing what is necessary to ensure security of supply in Germany – this includes not exposing Germany’s energy infrastructure to arbitrary Kremlin decisions,” Habeck said. Also Monday, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said for the first time publicly that Berlin was wrong to insist on the controversial work of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline for so long. Scholz overturned the pipeline in February just days before Russia invaded Ukraine and the project is now dead. “We were kept on bridges that Russia no longer believed in and that our partners were warning us about,” Steinmeier said. Giorgio Leali contributed to the report.
