German ban on Ukraine’s flag seen as ‘slap in the face’
GERMAN police rolled up a giant Ukrainian flag near a Soviet memorial over the weekend, as they said they did not want strong feelings about Vladimir Putin’s war to “spill over” into Second World War memorial events.
Since 1945, monuments have been erected across Berlin to commemorate the defeat of the Nazis as well as the heavy loss of Soviet lives.
But police said that this year they were banning the display of any Russian or Ukrainian flags near those memorials, and also issued a ban on playing military music near them.
“The act of remembering as well as the respect for memorials and monuments must be preserved against the background of Russia’s current war of aggression in Ukraine,” Berlin police said in a statement.
“The war must not be allowed to spill over into conflicts or disputes in Berlin beyond the democratic discourse,” it added. The move has angered Ukrainian officials, with Andrij Melnyk, Kyiv’s ambassador to Berlin branding it a “slap in the face” to the people of Ukraine.
“This not only shows a lack of tact; it is a catastrophic [decision],” he added.
Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, has not yet visited Kyiv, unlike other EU leaders and Boris Johnson for the UK.
It came as Mr Scholz’s Social Democrat party was defeated in a regional election in Schleswig-holstein yesterday, as the chancellor suffered his first electoral defeat since he took office.
The poor result is possibly linked to criticism over Mr Scholz’s response to the Ukraine war and his frosty relationship with Ukraine’s leaders.