‘Not with a gun to sleep’

• 

  Walter Black

  correspondent Germany

You cannot achieve peace in Ukraine by getting down on your knees before the aggressor. With this message, Chancellor Scholz today addressed the German parliament, but especially to Germans who advocate immediate negotiations with Russia. “What a fatal encouragement it would be to the perpetrators if we rewarded this assault on international law and the European order of peace.”

In a half-hour speech, Scholz pledged irrevocable support to Ukraine for as long as it takes. Military and humanitarian aid to the country has now cost the German state 18 billion euros. But those costs, he says, are necessary to curb Vladimir Putin’s “imperialist ambitions”, which also threaten European security.

The Chancellor addressed the entire Bundestag, exactly one year after his historic turning pointspeech. Then, just after the start of the Russian invasion, Scholz broke radically with decades of German pacifist politics.

He announced a special budget of 100 billion euros for the expansion and modernization of the armed forces. He also promised a more dominant role for Germany in the defense of Europe’s borders.

Although a majority of the population welcomes support for Ukraine, there is a group of Germans who are uncomfortable with this new attitude. Now that the government, after initial reluctance, is also leading the way in the supply of arms, a limit has been reached for some. Last weekend, some 13,000 people took to the streets to demonstrate against military interference in the war and for immediate negotiations with Putin.

Today, Scholz addressed them directly, warning that the Russian president seems unwilling to negotiate at all, let alone return to the pre-war status quo. In fact, “Putin prefers to threaten, for example by withdrawing from the START agreement against the use of nuclear weapons.”

According to the Chancellor, Putin’s war goals are unchanged: annex large parts of Ukraine and destroy Ukraine as a state. “It’s hard to negotiate with a gun to your temple,” he emphasizes.

“Peace should not be made on the heads of Ukrainians, who are fighting for their lives. Peacefulness does not mean submission. That does not lead to peace, but to the destruction of Ukraine.”