The Vice Chancellor of Germany has called for “reliable security guarantees” for Ukraine as part of any post-war settlement.
Commencing a visit to Kiev, Lars Klingbeil of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) made an official statement, declaring that
I am seeking to exchange ideas on how Germany can best support Ukraine in a possible peace process … Germany will live up to its responsibility.
Regardless of what Klingbeil and Chancellor Friedrich Merz say, such promises speak to an intractable problem, even after three years of war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky presents the continued presence of western troops inside his country as a core component of any settlement, but for Russia’s President Putin such a deployment is a red line not to be crossed.
Federal finance minister Klingbeil also called for a ceasefire, while his main message was amplified by German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul during his government’s Berlin Open Day last week, who announced that future Ukrainian security guarantees should be comparable to NATO membership levels (equivalent to another Moscow red line).
The statements coming out of Berlin and Klingbeil suggest more self-delusion from the ‘coalition of the willing,’ which is fundamentally unable to get Russia to bend to its will. One contributing factor is the current state of the German armed forces, not fit for purpose.
