German Navy chief resigns after suggesting Putin just 'wants and deserves respect'

Germany’s chief of the Navy stepped down on Saturday over statements he made suggesting Ukraine would never get Crimea back and that Russian President Vladimir Putin “probably” deserves respect, sparking international outcry amidst tensions between the West and Russia over a possible invasion.

"I have asked Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht to relieve me from my duties with immediate effect," Vice Admiral Kay-Achim Schoenbach said in a statement to Reuters. "The minister has accepted my request."

Schoenbach made the remarks to a foreign policy think-tank discussion in India on Friday, where he framed Putin’s actions as a desire to be treated as an equal.

“Does Russia really want a small and tiny strip of Ukraine soil to integrate into their country? No, this is nonsense,” Schoenbach said, referring to Crimean peninsula Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. “Putin is probably putting pressure because he can do it and he splits EU opinion. What he really wants to respect.”

The German general said understanding Putin was necessary to confront China.  

He continued: “[Putin] wants high-level respect and my God giving some respect is low cost, even no cost. If I was asked, it is easy to give him the respect he really demands and probably also deserves. Russia is an old country, Russia is an important country. Even we India, Germany, need Russia. We need Russia against China…”

Schoenberg also said during the discussion that “the Crimea peninsula is gone, it will never come back, this is a fact," contradicting the Western consensus that its annexation was unacceptable and must be reverse.

The discussion was posted to social media and sparked public outcry and a diplomatic crisis.

The German Ministry of Defense distanced itself from the vice-admiral’s comments, saying the Navy chief’s statements in “no way correspond to the position of the [German government] in terms of content and choice of words.”

The Ukrainian foreign ministry called on Germany to publicly reject the comments, as they could hurt Western efforts to de-escalate tensions along the Russia-Ukraine border.