The head of the German navy has resigned after saying Russian President Vladimir Putin deserves respect, amid growing fears of an invasion of Ukraine and tensions between Berlin and Kiev over the supply of weapons.

Speaking at a think tank meeting in New Delhi on Friday, Vice Admiral Kay-Achim Schönbach said the idea that Russia wanted to invade Ukraine was “absurd” and that everything Putin “really wants is respect”.

“And my goodness, giving someone respect costs little, if any, cost… It’s easy to give them the respect they really ask for — and probably deserve, too,” Schönbach said at the meeting, which was been filmed, calling Russia an old and important country.

Russia has amassed tens of thousands of troops on Ukraine’s borders.

Schönbach admitted that Russia’s actions in Ukraine needed to be addressed, but predicted that Kiev would never reconquer Crimea annexed from Moscow.

“The Crimean peninsula is gone, it will never come back, that’s a fact,” he said, contradicting the common Western position that Moscow’s annexation of the peninsula into Ukraine in 2014 cannot be accepted and must be cancelled.

On Saturday, Schönbach said he tendered his resignation “to prevent further damage to the German Navy and, above all, to the Federal Republic of Germany.”

A German Defense Ministry official said Schönbach would leave his post “with immediate effect”. A ministry statement made it clear that the vice admiral’s comments did not reflect Germany’s position.

Earlier on Saturday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba summoned the German ambassador to Kiev to protest the “categorical unacceptability” of Schönbach’s remarks.

Kuleba also condemned Germany for its refusal to supply weapons to Kiev, urging Berlin to stop “undermining unity” and “encouraging Vladimir Putin“.

The United States, Britain and the Baltic states have agreed to send Kiev weapons, including anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

On Saturday, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said Berlin would send a field hospital to Ukraine, while once again rejecting calls for arms from Kiev.

Berlin has already delivered ventilators to Ukraine and seriously injured Ukrainian soldiers are currently being treated in German military hospitals, she told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

“Weapons deliveries would not be useful at the moment – that is the consensus within the government,” Lambrecht said.

Kuleba said on Twitter that Germany’s statements “about the impossibility of supplying defense weapons to Ukraine” did not correspond “to the current security situation”.

“German partners must stop undermining unity with such words and actions and encourage Vladimir Putin to launch a new attack on Ukraine,” Kuleba said.

Ukraine is “grateful” to Germany for the support it has already given, but its “current statements are disappointing”, he added.

With Reuters and Agence France-Presse