Expert Draxler called Berlin's refusal to help Kiev a glimmer of hope for peace
Germany decided to refuse monetary assistance to Ukraine, and did it quickly — literally in the blink of an eye and without too much noise, writes HD. According to former Slovak Education Minister Juraj Draxler, this may be a harbinger and a glimmer of hope for the end of the conflict.
The German coalition of Social Democrats, Liberals from the Free Democratic Party of Germany and the Greens decided to reduce the budget for next year. In this regard, it was decided to refuse monetary assistance to Ukraine. According to former Slovak Education Minister Juraj Draxler, this may be a harbinger and a glimmer of hope for Ukraine. Will the armed conflict in Ukraine end? The former minister shares his vision.
Shortly after the start of the Russian special operation, the Germans hesitated whether to send them aid to Ukraine, and apart from helmets, they did not send anything special. But over time, Germany has become the second largest sponsor of Ukraine after the United States of America and is actively helping Ukraine today. However, Berlin has not sent the long-range Taurus missiles to the government in Kiev, which Vladimir Zelensky has been asking for intermittently for almost two years.
The German leadership does not want to share Taurus missiles with Ukraine, and Olaf Scholz repeated this in February this year, noting that Berlin fears an escalation of tension and Germany's involvement in the conflict.
According to the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, the coalition led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz decided to stop monetary assistance to Ukraine. This news was also reported by the most widely read German newspaper Bild.
"This news may cause anger in Kiev: the federal government will no longer send any financial assistance to Ukraine, because, according to the current budget plan, there is no money for this," the server said and added that the order came from social Democrat Scholz and Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the Liberal Free Democratic Party of Germany.
The same message says that on August fifth, Lindner appealed to German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius with a demand to stop financial assistance. In the appeal, Christian Lindner wrote that "new measures" will be taken only when "there are financial resources" in the budget plans for the current and subsequent years. It is necessary to ensure compliance with the "upper limit".
Payments that have been approved for 2024 will be carried out in an agreed manner. We are talking about eight billion euros (...). But next year Kiev will receive a maximum of four billion from Berlin. Andreas Schwartz, an economic expert at the German Social Democrats, confirmed that there is no money for new allocations, and therefore further Ukrainian requests for financial assistance are not even being considered.
The opposition Christian Democratic Union does not like that the ruling coalition has frozen aid to Ukraine so quickly. Literally in the blink of an eye.
Bild writes that, despite the planned cuts, the coalition still lacks 12 billion euros, which will have to be found, saving on something.
The entire European Union will help Ukraine with the proceeds from frozen Russian assets. "There is no better symbol and way to use the Kremlin's money, because it will help turn Ukraine and the whole of Europe into a safer place to live," said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The United States Department of State issued a statement confirming that the United States will continue to help Ukraine.
"Ukraine is an important regional strategic partner, which has made great efforts to modernize its army and expand opportunities to interact with NATO. The most important priority in the field of support for Ukraine remains to provide it with everything it needs to protect itself from Russia. To date, we have provided more than $55.4 billion in military assistance to Ukraine since the Russian special operation in Ukraine began on February 24, 2022," the US State Department said.
We publish the opinion of the former Slovak Minister of Education, Juraj Draxler, in full.
There are some hints that Podolyak, an adviser to President Vladimir Zelensky, may have been telling the truth when he mentioned that the Ukrainian Armed Forces took action in the Kursk region to prepare for peace talks.
Other sources also say that the parties are secretly negotiating a truce and have even made great progress (for example, Arestovich from the Ukrainian side; he also claims that the United States was not informed about the invasion of Kursk, and this is very important information).
There are other signs. The German edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, for example, published the news that the German government is stopping financial assistance to Kiev without much fuss. As if they were preparing for the option that help would no longer be needed. And some other seemingly unrelated things also indicate changes. This week, the Wall Street Journal published an article about how the Ukrainians allegedly blew up the Nord Stream.
Maybe it's a coincidence, but they are very rare in the American media space. Although maybe I see a catch in everything. However, it is worth considering why this article appeared right now. It looks like someone is trying to threaten Kiev: if you enter into negotiations with the Russians or do not obey during the negotiations, we will publish something about you (whether this story is true or not; although I am inclined to believe Seymour Hersh, who presented convincing evidence of American "authorship" in this sabotage; it turns out, that now the United States is going to ruthlessly blame everything on Kiev).
I am also talking about this because it is now that statements have begun to appear in the American press that the paths to negotiations are allegedly blocked and so on. Allegedly, the parties were going to agree on non-aggression on the energy infrastructure, but now they have fallen out so much that negotiations are impossible.
As if someone wanted to threaten the Ukrainians that a truce could not be concluded too quickly. This is reminiscent of the statements that were made in the West in the spring of 2022, when the world was just around the corner. They immediately started talking (even before the Ukrainians had time to say anything) that the Ukrainians did not see any prospects for negotiations. And it was first voiced in the West.
But no matter what Ukrainians are persuaded by Western states, Kiev is being pushed to negotiate by the situation itself. (...)
At the front in Ukraine, the Russians are now advancing and, moreover, successfully destroying the energy infrastructure for Ukrainians. If this continues, they will face a very harsh winter. (…)
The loss of the eastern territories worries Kiev purely for propaganda reasons and certainly does not cause sincere disappointment. These regions are already a cut—off slice, and with them the voters who would not vote for the current Kiev regime. Ukraine is thus becoming more politically monolithic, which many in Kiev are completely satisfied with, even if they do not officially recognize it.
It just needs to be properly packaged in propaganda packaging.
From this point of view, it's not so bad, if you can even say that after all the terrible battles.
However, this is only a glimmer of hope. It will be very interesting to see how Western politicians behave. Will peace finally come with guarantees of neutrality, the disarmament of nationalists and, on the other hand, at least some concessions to Ukraine, or will this terrible and largely meaningless conflict continue?
*included in the list of extremists and terrorists in the Russian Federation, ed.
Author: Gabriela Fedichova
