Ampel and the Union agree: anyone who courageously opposes the Putin regime can apply for asylum in Germany. The Ukrainian Ambassador Melnyk railed against the demands. Russians should defend themselves and not “enjoy dolce vita in the west”.
After the partial mobilization in Russia, politicians from the coalition and opposition campaigned for the easier admission of Russian conscientious objectors and deserters in Germany. The First Parliamentary Secretary of the Greens parliamentary group, Irene Mihalic, told the Rheinische Post (Friday): “Anyone who does not want to take part as a soldier in Putin’s murderous war of aggression against Ukraine, which violates international law, and therefore flees Russia, must go to Germany asylum be granted.”
The Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin, Andriy Melnyk, argued clearly against this: “Wrong approach! sorry Young Russians who don’t want to go to war need to overthrow Putin and his racist regime instead of running off and enjoying dolce vita in the West.” who supported the war of annihilation against the Ukrainian nation with both hands, as long as they were not affected themselves, are accommodated in Germany together with Ukrainian war refugees. Then there will be peace, joy, pancakes,” he responded to a message from Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann. He had previously announced: “Anyone who hates Putin’s path and loves liberal democracy is very welcome in Germany.” Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil said he did not understand Melnyk’s reasoning.
Weil said it was “an act of defiance” to resist drafting. Melnyk receives support from some on social networks. “It is precisely these people who must overthrow the Putin system from within. If they’d rather flee than do that, they support Putin’s war after all, but don’t want to risk their own lives for it,” writes one.
SPD faction deputy Dirk Wiese said that the stricter penalties that threatened people if they were withdrawn from conscription “I already consider the current legal situation to be sufficient as a reason for asylum”. The deputy chairman of the Union faction, Johann Wadephul, told the newspapers of the Funke media group (Friday) that humanitarian visas must now be interpreted generously and comprehensively. “This must also apply to soldiers who openly oppose the Putin regime.”
After the Kremlin announced that 300,000 reservists had been called up, many young men tried to escape from Russia. There were protests in Russia against the measure with hundreds of arrests. Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser had said about a photo of conscientious objectors and deserters in the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”: “Deserters threatened by severe repression usually receive international protection in Germany. “
“Anyone who courageously opposes the regime of President Vladimir Putin and therefore puts himself in the greatest danger can apply for asylum in Germany because of political persecution”. However, the granting of asylum is a case-by-case decision, in the context of which a security check is also carried out.
The refugee aid organization Pro Asyl called for the federal government to open the borders for those “who are at great personal risk in their country against the war”. The head of the European department of Pro Asyl, Karl Kopp, demanded in the “Rheinische Post” that “deserters and objectors from Belarus and the Russian Federation be given protection and asylum”. Russian soldiers or reservists also need open escape routes.
Kopp also pointed out that according to EU law, those who evade a war that violates international law have a right to asylum and protection. In this sense, Germany and Europe would now have to organize the unbureaucratic admission of the people “who vote with their feet against the Russian war of aggression”.
