According to US experts, Russia is once again putting pressure on the West to urge Ukraine to negotiate. Thus, the West must influence the Ukrainian leadership to accept Russia’s conditions for such negotiations, according to the ISW Institute for War Studies in Washington. As in the past, Russia’s sole aim is to discourage the West from helping Ukraine by pretending to be willing to negotiate.
The experts referred to information from the Kremlin on Friday, according to which Russian President Vladimir Putin was open to dialogue. Russia accuses Ukraine and the West of blocking the talks. At the same time, Moscow is rejecting a peace plan by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that calls for the withdrawal of Russian troops. Ukraine and also Germany are against freezing the war with the territories occupied by Russia.
According to ISW, Russia has not yet created conditions for such negotiations or bid farewell to its ultimate goal of capitulating the Ukrainian government. The Kremlin is likely to step up its false claims that it is ready for negotiations. At the same time, ISW experts see new attempts by China, with its special envoy Li Hui, to urge the West to use its influence in Ukraine to reach a ceasefire.
Ukraine must decide for itself
EU states and the US have always emphasized that they will continue to support Ukraine. The country, which has been under attack by Russia for more than 15 months, relies on Western heavy weapons and ammunition to liberate its occupied territories. The West always emphasizes that Ukraine must decide about its own future.
The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Valeriy Zalushnyi, posted a video showing soldiers praying and preparing for the big offensive. “It’s time to take back what’s ours,” the video reads. Ukraine goes on the offensive to free its territories from the occupiers and raise the banner of victory. The president’s office in Kiev had previously said the offensive had been going on for days.
Former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer sees Europe’s security as a permanent threat from Russia – even if a ceasefire is reached in the Ukraine war. “If you think about the end of this war, then you have to think realistically,” the green politician told “Tagesspiegel” (Saturday). “It will be a painful ceasefire that will satisfy neither side. And it will pose a permanent threat to Europe’s security.”
truce requires compromise
A ceasefire will require “territorial compromises” that are anything but easy for both sides, Fischer explained. “If in the end (Russian President Vladimir) Putin gets confirmation in the direction of Crimea and some corrections in the east and he has to present this as a success at home, it will certainly not be easy. On the other hand, Ukrainians will find it very difficult to make territorial commitments.”
EU member states froze a total of 200 billion euros from the Russian central bank. This was announced by the EU Commission at the request of “Welt am Sonntag”, according to the preliminary report. Overall, the number of central bank foreign fixed assets in the G7 industrialized countries and EU countries is around €300 billion. The amount of frozen private assets of Russian oligarchs in Europe has hardly increased over the past six months.
According to the Commission, assets worth €24.1 billion were established in the European Union. Thus, 1,473 oligarchs and 205 companies were sanctioned. At the end of December, frozen assets totaled €18.9 billion. However, German authorities have not determined any additional assets in the past three months. According to the newspaper, the German Ministry of Finance announced this on request.
Ukraine, meanwhile, apparently asked Germany for the delivery of the German Taurus cruise missile. According to the newspaper “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday”, the German Ministry of Defense confirmed Ukraine’s request. A German government spokesman declined to comment on whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had personally addressed that request to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), as newspaper reports suggested.
Taurus cruise missiles have a range of up to 500 kilometers. They are dropped from fighter planes and find their targets on their own. The missile can fly under radar. It is considered an effective weapon against protected targets such as command bunkers or ammunition depots.
Explosion in Pskov region, Russia
In an interview with “FAS”, foreign politicians Roderich Kiesewetter (CDU) and Michael Roth (SPD), chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the German Bundestag, argued that Germany actively supports deliveries of F-16 fighter jets by the US to Ukraine , for example, through education. According to Kiesewetter, Berlin could contribute to the armament of the F-16 through the Taurus. Experts assured him that it wasn’t “rocket science” to adapt the German cruise missile to the American F-16.
Roth and Kiesewetter justified their claim with the significant losses suffered by the Ukrainian air force since the start of the Russian invasion. The newspaper cites “US information” that Ukraine had already lost 60 of its 145 fighter jets earlier this year.
According to Governor Mikhail Vedernikov, an explosion occurred in the Russian region of Pskov, near the border with Belarus. It was due to a drone strike, Wedernikow explained. Two drones damaged the administration building, he wrote on the Telegram short message service. Preliminary investigations revealed this. There are no injuries, emergency services are on site. (apa)