After facing humiliation in US over his disastrous victory plan, former comedian Volodymyr Zelensky is facing the heat in Europe. He went to Europe to shore up support for Ukraine, what he got in return was snubs, setbacks and rude surprises! In Germany, Zelensky arrived with two major demands and goals. The first demand was to obtain permission to use foreign-made weapons to launch strikes deep inside Russia. The other demand was to fast-track Kyiv’s accession into NATO.
German tabloid Bild reported that the outcome of Zelebsky’s visit turned out to be “pretty poor,” saying that the two Ukrainian demands “fell on deaf ears in Berlin.” While the chancellor “did not definitely say ‘no’, there was no positive response” from him either, the article said.
It must be noted that Germany has still not delivered long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine, which can hit targets as far as 500km away. Despite pressure from Ukraine, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has so far refused to oblige, citing escalation concerns and arguing that the deliveries would only be “tenable” if Berlin could decide the targets itself, which would make it a direct participant in the war.
Not just that, during Zelensky’s visit, Berlin also declared it no longer had more military hardware to offer to Ukraine beyond what has already been pledged.
Bild reported on Oct 13 that officials in the German Defense Ministry believed Ukraine was not capable of launching “an offensive to liberate its own territory” in the near future.
You see, after the spectacular failure of the Kursk offensive, major NATO nations have lost confidence in Ukraine. According to Bild, Germany has also refused to send “heavy weapons” to Ukraine. It means Ukraine will no longer get anks, infantry fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers, self-propelled howitzers and similar hardware from Germany. This is huge! It looks like Germany has unofficially declared Ukraine loser and it doesn’t see any point it sending more aid to Kyiv.
Notably, Germany announced military aid package worth $1.53 billion for Ukraine during Zelensky’s visit. But Bild reported this aid was in fact referred to commitments promised and paid for last year.
Since the escalation of the conflict two years back, Germany has provided Ukraine with $5.7 billion in military aid, including Leopard tanks and other heavy equipment. In August, German media reported that the government would stop new shipments to Kyiv in a bid to reduce spending. However, both Kyiv and Berlin had denied the claim.
Earlier this month, TFI Global had reported how Olaf Scholz is begging to speak by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The German chancellor is hoping for the call to take place ahead of the G20 meeting in Brazil in mid-November. In March, he implied he now misses those phone calls with Putin. He said, “Our last phone call was in December two years back — before that we used to speak more frequently.”
You see, Scholz looks really desperate to bury the hatchet with Putin. He looks so willing to end the war in Ukraine now that he might want to himself lead a white flag rally to Moscow from Berlin.
Germany has now realised its economy can be revived only when the great liability called Ukraine war is ended. And Olaf Scholz also realised you can’t attain peace by using force, missiles and ammunitions against Russia.