Seven military observers, including four Germans, from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were captured last Friday in eastern Ukraine and held for more than a week by pro-Russian separatists.
On Sunday the deputy leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Bavarian allies, the Christian Social Union (CSU), questioned why Germany had sent its military observers on the Ukraine mission.
“I can see that it is in the interest of the revolutionary government in Kiev, whose legitimacy one has reasons to doubt, to 'invite' German soldiers into the conflict zone, but I don't understand how it can be in our interest to allow ourselves to be dragged further into the conflict in such a clumsy manner,” Peter Gauweiler told Spiegel.
There was also criticism from Merkel’s centre-left coalition partners, the Social Democrats (SPD). Their defence spokesman Lars Klingbeil called for a report into the mission by the defence ministry.
And the defence committee chairman of the opposition party Die Linke, Alexander Neu, said the government was yet to give a plausible explanation why unarmed German soldiers were in the crisis zone. He described the mission as a “serious political mistake”.
But defence minister Ursula von der Leyen, who greeted the freed German hostages in Berlin on Saturday night defended the operation.
However, she told broadcaster ZDF on Sunday evening that it would be “analyzed again”.
The head of the OSCE team released by pro-Russian rebels expressed his “deep relief” after an ordeal that lasted more than a week.
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