While outwardly expressing full support for Ukraine, behind closed doors in Berlin and Washington plans are being hatched to force Ukraine into talks with Russia to freeze the war on its current front lines, German newspaper BILD said in a report published on Nov. 24.
Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis warned of this yesterday, Bloomberg reported.
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The German federal government has now set itself the main goal of putting Ukraine in a “strategically good negotiating position,” BILD said.
“The country should negotiate with (Russian dictator) Vladimir Putin’s regime about its ‘sovereignty and territorial integrity.’ The White House and the Chancellery are coordinating on this,” government sources told BILD.
Neither German Chancellor Olaf Scholz nor U.S. President Joe Biden want to directly call on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to bargain on the future status of the Russian-occupied territories at the negotiating table, BILD said.
Read also: Frozen war frees Russia to rearm, threaten NATO within 6 years, German military analysts warn
Instead, both countries – as Ukraine’s largest arms suppliers – have decided to force the government in Kyiv into talks with Putin’s regime by restricting the quality and quantity of their arms deliveries. They can do this because no other Western country supports Ukraine nearly as much as Germany and the United States, BILD said.
“Zelenskyy should come to the realization that things cannot go on like this,” a German government insider told BILD.
“He should address his nation of his own free will and explain that negotiations need to be carried out.”
If constricting weapons supplies fail to bring Ukraine to the negotiating table, Washington and Berlin have a Plan B, a source in the German government told BILD.
“What Berlin and Washington are striving for as an alternative to negotiations is a frozen conflict, without agreement between the conflicting parties,” the source said.
That would mean that even if Zelensky and Putin don’t (want to) talk to each other, the line of contact would solidify and become closed – a new quasi-border between Ukraine and Russia.
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“It’s like Minsk, only without Minsk,” said the insider sarcastically, referring to the fragile and ineffectual “peace treaty” between Ukraine and Russia concluded in 2014.
German CDU party MP Roderich Kiesewetter, a former Bundeswehr (German armed forces) General Staff officer, agrees that this might be among the plans of the United States and Germany.
“It’s becoming increasingly obvious that the Chancellery does not believe in a Ukrainian victory and does not want it at all,” Kiesewetter told BILD.
“The arms package that Pistorius brought to Ukraine is not an expression of the goal of ‘Ukraine must win.’ Rather, it symbolizes that there is so little support that Ukraine is being pushed into negotiations, a ‘Minsk 3.’”
But according to military expert and “ECFR” researcher Gustav Gressel, Washington and Berlin’s plans will not work.
“It’s a misconception in the West that if you put more pressure on Zelenskyy to sit down at the negotiating table, serious negotiations will then take place,” Gressel told BILD.
“Putin doesn’t want to negotiate, he wants to win this war.”
Read also: Slowing arms supplies could force Ukraine into negotiations with Russia, Lithuania warns
“By keeping Ukraine weak, we invite Putin to continue to believe in his victory and work on it. Only when Ukraine gets on the winning track will Russia become willing to negotiate. But Ukraine hasn’t been able to do that, and delayed, non-existent and far too small arms deliveries are part of this problem.”
When contacted by BILD for the story, the German Federal Chancellery denied that Germany was pursuing its own goals with its support for Ukraine.
“It is clear to the Federal Government: It is up to Ukraine to determine the military and political goals in its defensive fight against Russian aggression,” a chancellery spokesman told BILD.
“Germany stands firmly on Ukraine’s side. We will support Ukraine for as long as necessary to defend itself against Russian aggression. It is about defending sovereignty and territorial integrity and therefore the survival of Ukraine. We’re in constant and close communication with our international partners.”
Kiesewetter is not buying it, according to BILD. Regarding the federal government, he told BILD: “We’re deliberately not delivering what Ukraine needs to liberate occupied territory, such as Taurus or other Leopard 2 battle tanks, but are limiting ourselves to the defense of a rump Ukraine.”
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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine