Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is calling for support for Ukraine to be adapted to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s new war strategy. Putin assumed that “he could quickly and brutally invade Ukraine and then crush the country,” said the Green politician on Tuesday on the ARD program “Brennpunkt”. “Now he sees that doesn’t work. And his strategy is now long-term.”
That means: “We also have to support Ukraine in such a way that we have staying power,” said Baerbock. And that means: “More weapons deliveries that we have made so far.”
She referred to the so-called ring exchange, in which Germany supports other NATO partners with weapons so that they can in turn deliver weapons of Soviet design to Ukraine. However, her Ukrainian counterpart made it clear: “For the terrible thing that is happening in Donbass, they need support above all else to be able to fend off what comes from the air – that means artillery, that means air defense, and that means drones .”
Baerbock added: “And we now have to check whether we are really providing everything for this new strategy so that Ukraine can continue to defend itself.” Otherwise there is a risk that “everything will be flattened” in the Donbass war zone in eastern Ukraine.
The Foreign Minister warned of a scenario in which Russia is playing for time after a partial success: “I can understand that some people think: Yes, and if the guns are silent for a short time because Putin has taken a part, then that’s it everything is fine again.” But then “nothing is good again”. “Because the absence of violence there does not lead to peace and freedom. But then the Russian army would reorganize itself, and their declared goal is this imperial madness: to take over the Ukraine completely.”
