Diplomat says Bild crosses moral line by publishing Russia’s plan to invade Ukraine – Russian Politics and Diplomacy

MOSCOW, February 6. /TASS/. The Bild newspaper crossed all moral boundaries when it published an article about Russia’s alleged plan to invade Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in an interview with the YouTube channel Solovyov Live.

“It’s been a while since we’ve been meticulous with words and phrases in order to be delicate in a certain way, not to offend ourselves and from the best intentions of the partners. Currently, they have crossed all the possible lines of human and authentic morality and ethics. Today, [the German newspaper] Bild published an article about a supposedly detailed plan of attack,” she said. “From his point of view, the Russian president [Vladimir Putin] himself designed helmets, muzzles <...>cartridges, calibers, etc.”

Concerns about Moscow’s alleged preparations for an invasion of Ukraine have been increasingly heralded in the west and in Kyiv recently. Moscow has repeatedly dismissed such speculation.

Zakharova added that Moscow took retaliatory action against German broadcaster Deutsche Welle following Berlin’s decision to ban RT DE in Germany to demonstrate that further steps in this direction will come at a cost.

“We are responding, we have been taught, we are doing this to demonstrate that further steps in this direction will have a cost,” the diplomat said.

On February 2, the Licensing and Supervision Commission banned the broadcasting of the television channel RT DE TV in Germany because no license was required under the Media Act.

The Russian Foreign Ministry earlier announced that Moscow was closing Deutsche Welle’s press office in Russia, the first step in retaliatory measures following the German regulator’s decision to ban RT DE in Germany. Other measures will include stripping the credentials of all Deutsche Welle Russian office staff and initiating a process to identify the German government and public agencies involved in the RT DE broadcast ban and in the exercise of other types of pressure on the Russian media, which will ultimately be banned from entering Russia.