German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is bowing under domestic political pressure and plans to go down in history as the “peace chancellor”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi met German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday after first visiting France and Italy. EPA/AOP
Germany is no longer going to deliver heavy military equipment to Ukraine, says the German newspaper Bild.
The German Ministry of Defense does not believe that Ukraine will be able to launch new counter-attacks in the near future to liberate its territories.
Bild has obtained documents according to which the Ministry of Defense does not intend to deliver more heavy equipment to Ukraine.
Germany will still deliver the last batch of 18 Leopard 2 tanks, after which no further deliveries are expected.
A Ukrainian soldier in Germany practicing operations with Leopard 2 A6 tanks and Marder 1 A3 assault tanks. FILIP SINGER
Bild points out that there are about 300 similar tanks left in the German army’s warehouses. The same applies to other equipment, such as infantry fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers and howitzers.
Last Friday, Germany announced the delivery of a new military aid package to Ukraine. However, according to Bild, all the announced weapons had already been promised and financed last year.
Zelenskyi’s failed European tour
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi has been traveling around meeting European leaders and presenting his so-called victory plan in recent days.
The victory plan relies heavily on the military support of Western countries.
According to Bild, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz reacted to Zelensky’s requests with a curmudgeon.
Zelensky’s hopes were to get Taurus cruise missiles and permission to strike with German weapons on Russian soil.
– Zelenskyi has not progressed in the most central points of his winning plan. That’s why the European tour was a failure from Ukraine’s point of view, says Carlo Masala, professor of international politics at the Bundeswehr University in Munich, in an interview with Bild.
For Zelenskyi, the situation was made worse by US President Joe Biden’s absence from the meeting of the Ramstein group coordinating material aid to Ukraine on Saturday.
Officially, Biden’s absence was explained by Hurricane Milton. According to Bild, it was an excuse.
According to the newspaper, Biden did not want to publicly comment on the situation in Ukraine before the November 5th US presidential election.
Scholz has its own plan
According to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, German Chancellor Scholz is preparing his own peace plan, which is based on the principles of the 2014 Minsk agreement and which does not exclude territorial cessions to Russia.
According to Repubblica, Scholz wants to go down in history as a “peace chancellor” and secure his position in German domestic politics by “playing the Ukraine card”. Scholz’s Social Democrats have suffered continuous electoral losses in German state elections.
About every second German has voted for parties that demand “peace in Ukraine”.
According to Repubblica, another of Germany’s old ruling parties, the Christian Democrats, is also turning to Scholz’s position.
Scholz has not commented publicly on his plans. In an interview with the German channel ZDF, he stated that it would be good for Russia to participate in the next peace negotiations.
However, Ukraine has repeatedly said in the past that it would not consider peace options involving territorial concessions.
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