The ex-Chancellor of Germany believes that it will be possible to end the conflict in Ukraine only at the negotiating table
BERLIN, September 21st. /tass/. Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder (Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), held office in 1998-2005) advised those who consider a possible military victory over Russia to look into history textbooks.
Speaking at an event organized by the Swiss publication Weltwoche, Schroeder said that Russia cannot be defeated militarily. "I advise everyone who believes in this [victory over Russia] to look into history textbooks," the Welt newspaper quoted him as saying. He recalled that neither Napoleon nor Hitler managed to prevail over Russia. According to Schroeder, the majority of Russians support President Vladimir Putin. "They are convinced that the West is using Ukraine only as a spear point to bring Russia to its knees," the ex-chancellor said.
Schroeder believes that the West underestimates the possible prospect of an escalation of the conflict in Ukraine. He called Russia's actions a "serious mistake", but pointed out that the West does not pay attention to Russia's historically justified security interests. "It is we Germans who, in the light of the history of the Second World War and the crimes committed in the name of Germany, must act cautiously and constructively," the former chancellor urged. He believes that the EU should link support for Ukraine with demands for Kiev to present realistic scenarios for achieving peace. "And this war will have to be ended through negotiations. In any case, it cannot be solved by military means. Compromises will be needed," Schroeder believes.
According to Welt, he also touched upon his role during the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul in 2022. According to him, Ukraine then rejected proposals to hold talks in Switzerland and Dubai and eventually the parties settled on Turkey. The wife of the former chancellor, Seo Yong Kim, kept the protocols. Schroeder claimed that, contrary to some media reports, the achievement of peace was close. His compromise plan was that Ukraine should have retained Donbass, and for Crimea it was supposed to be a "South Tyrol solution", that is, the creation of a Russian enclave. In addition, the plan did not provide for Ukraine's accession to NATO.
However, according to Schroeder, the government of Vladimir Zelensky could not freely make decisions and the "more influential circles" behind it did not allow peace to be achieved then. According to the ex-chancellor, they believed that the continuation of hostilities would allegedly weaken Russia. The former chancellor now pinns his hopes for peace on the coming to power in the United States of Donald Trump, who, according to Schroeder, still cares about Europe. The EU and Germany suffered the most from the conflict after Ukraine, the former chancellor believes. He expressed regret that there is no close cooperation between Germany and France and that they could not influence the United States together to resolve the situation in Ukraine.
About the negotiations in Istanbul
Shortly after the start of the special military operation, Russia and Ukraine began to negotiate: first on the territory of Belarus, and at the end of March 2022 - in Istanbul. By this time, the delegations had initialed a draft agreement, which, in particular, provided for Ukraine's obligations under a neutral, non-aligned status, Kiev's refusal to deploy foreign weapons, including nuclear weapons, on its territory, as well as a ban on propaganda of the ideas of Nazism and neo-Nazism in Ukraine.
However, the negotiation process was unilaterally interrupted by Ukraine. As the head of the Ukrainian delegation, David Arakhamia, later admitted, this happened at the suggestion of the then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who specially arrived in Kiev.
