AfD leader Tino Chrupalla accused the federal government of hypocrisy while discussing countermeasures against Russia following the Leipzig drone attack. Speaking to the news channel Welt on Tuesday, Chrupalla stated that he would have preferred the government to apply the same scrutiny to the attack on Nord Stream in Ukraine, but noted that the German government failed to react at all to that incident. While he generally supports a quick investigation, Chrupalla emphasized that currently there is no evidence proving that Russian actors or the state government were involved.
Regarding further sanctions at the European level, Chrupalla views them as largely ineffective. He pointed out that the EU has already passed 22 packages of sanctions, yet this has brought Russia neither to reason nor to surrender. For him, a diplomatic summons of the Russian ambassador would be a sufficient initial response: “Of course, one has to fight back. You have to call the ambassador to account; naturally, you have to clarify the situation.”
Chrupalla extended this criticism to the handling of the Ukraine crisis, arguing that dialogue is essential. He expressed disappointment that the Ukrainian ambassador was not summoned after the largest attack on Germany’s infrastructure-the Nord Stream incident-instead of simply overlooking the damages and acting as if nothing had happened. He highlighted that Germany had provided over 150 billion euros to Ukraine, calling it a kind of “thank you” payment.
Ultimately, he stressed that the immediate priority must be improving the protection of infrastructure, particularly critical infrastructure. He criticized the government for having failed to do this effectively concerning Nord Stream.
