Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Andrij Melnyk has called for a three-month embargo on oil and gas supplies from Russia in response to the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
"The time has come to finally hit the gentlemen in the Kremlin with a tough response," the Ukrainian ambassador told dpa agency, according to Deutsche Welle.
In his opinion, the termination of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project required by a number of German politicians would not be enough.
Read alsoFM Kuleba voices Ukraine's position on Navalny poisoningPutin's regime "should be deprived of a major source of income for its aggressive policies."
The Ukrainian diplomat also demanded to put all European investments in the Russian economy to a halt.
"The insidious attempt to poison Navalny with a chemical weapon of mass destruction is not only an overt death threat to all Putin critics. It's a blow to the face of the [German] chancellor, the federal government, and the German public, who were deliberately humiliated," Melnyk stressed.
In his opinion, Putin has already clearly demonstrated he was not affected by Berlin's reaction to his previous actions.
Navalny poisoning: background
- Russian opposition's Alexei Navalny felt sick on board the plane he was flying from the city of Tomsk to Moscow on August 20. His rapidly deteriorating condition forced the captain to perform an emergency landing in Omsk.
- Navalny's press secretary assumed the politician's tea had been laced with poison.
- Navalny was evacuated from Omsk to Germany on an ambulance aircraft for further medical treatment on Saturday, August 22.
- Experts with the Bundeswehr laboratory found in Navalny's body traces of poison from the novichok group. In this regard, Berlin called on Moscow to explain the circumstances of the poisoning of the Russian opposition figure.to fully investigate the poisoning of the opposition politician.
- German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that the refusal to probe the incident could lead to a revision of Berlin's stance on the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
