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Germany’s offer of 5,000 helmets to Ukraine wasn’t exactly impressing the country that has seen Russia station thousands of troops along its borders.
“‘The behavior of the German government leaves me speechless. The defense ministry apparently hasn’t realized that we are confronted with perfectly equipped Russian forces that can start another invasion of Ukraine at any time. What kind of support will Germany send next, pillows?’”
That’s the reaction of Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, speaking to the German tabloid Bild. Klitschko is probably best known outside the country as a former world heavyweight boxing champion.
It should be noted that Ukraine did in fact request helmets from Germany, though the country requested 100,000. The Bild report indicated it’s not known whether Germany will send new or old helmets.
Germany also reportedly has blocked Estonia from supplying used German howitzers to Kyiv.
One market signal of Russian tensions is the Swiss franc-vs.-Russian ruble cross
CHFRUB,
which dropped over 1% on Thursday but has surged 10% over the last three months.
The VanEck Russia ETF
RSX,
has dropped 18% this year on fears of U.S. and European sanctions against Russians and the Russian economy.
