"The chancellor's position on the Ukrainian conflict remains and will remain unchanged: we support Ukraine in its defense against the Russian aggressor for as long as it takes and with whatever we deem necessary and can convey," Hebestreit said, adding that he disagrees that the words of the head of the SPD parliamentary faction in the Bundestag, Rolf Mützenich, can be perceived as a demand.
He emphasized that Mützenich's idea is not the government's position.
"The government supports the 10 points of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's peace plan," Hebestreit explained.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer quoted Minister Annalena Baerbock as saying in December that a frozen conflict would "cement" Putin's violent rule in Ukraine and that people in the temporarily occupied territories would continue to be subjected to persecution, pressure, torture, rape and abduction.
The diplomat reminded that Russia started the war in eastern Ukraine back in 2014, after which the conflict was frozen as part of the Minsk process.
"But all diplomatic efforts were torpedoed by Russia, and a hot conflict, an aggressive war that contradicts international law, began again. Putin was not talking about peace then, but about preparing for war," he explained.
In addition, Mützenich's words provoked a strong reaction among politicians of democratic parties, who called his statement threatening.
However, he dismissed his opponents' criticism, saying that the day before, when discussing the supply of long-range missiles to Ukraine, he "clearly spoke in favor of supporting Ukraine, including with weapons and ammunition, but suggested that we think not only about military aid, but also about the conditions for a possible end to the war.”