Olaf Scholz conveys that Germany is not a belligerent party in the Ukraine – Russia war
German flag/Berlin
Berlin’s recent decision to supply Kiev with battle tanks, a major shift after weeks of overtures, does not make Germany a direct party to the war in Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has reiterated. “This is a war between Russia and Ukraine,” the German chancellor said Saturday night during a press conference in Buenos Aires, the first stop of his four-day visit to Latin America. The fact that Germany provides Kiev with “financial aid, humanitarian aid or weapons” did not change this, Scholz added. Germany will do everything possible to prevent an escalation leading to a war between Russia and NATO member states, he said. “For us it’s not even a problem. We’ll do everything we can to make sure that doesn’t happen,” he added. The chancellor’s comments came after remarks by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock caused a stir in Moscow on Tuesday.Baerbock called for cohesion among Western allies at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg and said: “We are fighting a war against Russia, not with each other.” Russian state media used this statement as evidence to claim that Germany and other EU states are direct parties to the conflict in Ukraine, which Moscow refuses to call a war.
The German Foreign Ministry meanwhile clarified that Baerbock’s statements were not intended to present Germany as a belligerent party, nor its allies. Scholz also plans to continue direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to make moves towards ending the war against Ukraine.”I will also talk to Putin again on the phone, because it is necessary to talk to each other,” the German chancellor said in an interview with German daily Tagesspiegel consulted by DPA before it was published on Sunday.”It is up to Putin to withdraw troops from Ukraine and end this terrible, senseless war that has already cost hundreds of thousands of lives,” he added. Scholz has maintained that his cautious approach reflects the reluctance of the German population. A poll released last week showed that Germans were fairly evenly split on the issue, with 46% in favor of sending battle tanks to Ukraine, and 43% against. The survey, conducted by pollster infratest dimap, found that support among SPD voters for sending tanks was slightly more in favor of sending tanks: 49% wanted to send Leopards, with 40% opposed. The party supporters most strongly in favor of were those of the CDU, of whom 66% thought Germany should send Leopards, closely followed (somewhat surprisingly, given its roots in 1980’s pacifist activism) by Green Party supporters, 61% of whom were in favor. The neoliberal FDP, meanwhile, was exactly evenly split — 48% in favor and 48% against. That in itself was a surprise, since one of Scholz’s loudest critics in the last few months has been the FDP’s Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, chairperson of the Bundestag’s defense committee, who has visited Ukraine several times in the past year. Supporters of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), meanwhile, remain the most vehemently opposed to tank deliveries: Some 84% opposed the move. The smallest party in the Bundestag, the socialist Left Party, is also against arms deliveries to Ukraine. Its co-leader Dietmar Bartsch told the Bundestag on Wednesday: “The goal cannot be to get Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine within three months. The goal should be to end the war in three months’ time.”
By Paul Bumman
