Talking about the impact of the European Union's sanction packages in a press conference on Wednesday, outgoing German ambassador to India, Walter J Lindner, urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop the ongoing war with Ukraine.
"It's almost the 100th day of the war and after more than three months, we have seen thousands of soldiers die on both sides in Ukraine as well as Russia. The war has led to more than 5,000 civilian deaths and more than 8 million refugees," Lindner told ANI.
In a further statement, he emphasized on rising oil prices in the world along with inflation and highlighted the ongoing food crisis in the African countries.
Speaking to ANI, the German envoy also discussed the impact of European Union sanction packages further and said, "It has impacted us a lot. We are the biggest economic power in Europe, and we were dependent by almost 50% on Russian energy supplies. We had a pipeline with the Russian side but through Putin's war, this has all come to an end."
We are a strong economy but we are impacted by inflation of oil prices and we have to invest a lot of money to military issues as well, he added.
Explaining the rationale behind his statement on immediate war cessation, the outgoing ambassador stated that if the world lets Putin win the war, then it will set a very bad example for all future countries and leaders who think that they could invade or attack the neighbouring countries.
"There are a lot of countries in the world with neighbourhood issues, and border issues and some of them might come to the idea of well, let's follow Putin's example and this will be bad for everyone. We will all lose," he added.
Adding further on sanctions, he said, "We did not opt for sanctions, rather they are there to prevent Putin. We all have inflation and we need to rearrange our spending as everyone is losing with sanctions."
Moreover, Lindner also applauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership skills in running such a big country and stated that former German Chancellor Angela Merkel always was curious about how he managed to lead such a large country, concluding the statement.
( With inputs from ANI )
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