Anne Will (ARD): Ukrainian publicist with an emotional appeal – “No more Ukraine in winter”

Anne Will in the ARD talk is again about the Ukraine war. A Ukrainian journalist accuses the Federal Republic of doing too little.

Berlin – War has been raging in Ukraine for almost four weeks, ten million people are fleeing, more than ever in Europe since the Second World War. “Putin’s attack – war without end?” was the subject of Anne Will on Sunday evening on ARD.

“What can be done”, people all over the world ask themselves, especially the country’s politicians, “to end the war in Ukraine as soon as possible?” Discussing it in the Bundestag at least would have been an idea. But after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj addressed the Bundestag with a video message on Thursday, Bundestag President Katrin Göring-Eckart immediately switched to the agenda, which Christine Lambrecht (SPD), Federal Minister of Defence, now sees as a mistake. When it came to Anne Will on ARD, the guests from the other parties agreed with remarkable unanimity, from FDP politician Alexander Graf Lambsdorff to CDU member Christoph Heusgen, chairman of the Munich Security Conference.

Ukraine war at Anne Will (ARD): Can you do more than talk, promise solidarity and condemn Putin?

Stefanie Babst, Principal & Global Policy Advisor, Brooch Associates and longtime NATO strategist, said that the Ukraine conflict cannot be ended any time soon. Vladimir Putin will not backtrack, but will try to establish areas in Ukraine as a buffer zone and, above all, to prevent Ukraine from becoming a NATO member in the foreseeable future. Anne Will was more emotional on ARD with Marina Weisband, a German-Ukrainian publicist who reports on social media about her relatives living in Ukraine. She accused the Federal Republic of not doing enough, on the contrary, even helping to finance the war by buying gas and oil from Russia.

Whether an immediate import stop would change the course of the war is the question that Christine Lambrecht answered in the affirmative: The sanctions may be slow, but they are working. The consequences are being felt more and more in Russia, and the pressure on Putin is growing. However, Count Lambsdorff pointed out that in his appearance in front of tens of thousands, Putin in no way gave the impression of deviating from his goals.

The 100 billion euros that Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants to use to upgrade the Bundeswehr undoubtedly inspires enthusiasm among global armaments companies, but could also strengthen Germany’s position in international organizations. Whether that would help the people in Ukraine is another question, but as Christoph Heusgen emphasized: Germany must take responsibility, especially since it is more dependent on international trade than almost any other country. – And from cheap energy, which now comes not least from Russia.

Ukraine war at Anne Will (ARD): where is the red line of the west?

How this dependency came about, Heusgen tried to explain to Anne Will on ARD with German history, the attempt to establish good relations with the Soviet Union and after 1990 with Russia, an attempt that is now considered a failure. And so the talk goes on, weighed up, it is ruled out that NATO will intervene in the conflict.

If something doesn’t happen soon, there could be no Ukraine next winter, Marina Weisband countered. But are there really no red lines? What will happen if Russian troops invade Odessa or Lviv, which is close to the border with Poland and thus the NATO area? What if Ukraine’s massive resistance leads to even more extreme violence from Russia?

“The red line of NATO is NATO territory,” stressed Graf Lambsdorff, but of course that doesn’t help Ukraine in any way at the moment. At the end of the discussion at Anne Will (ARD), the realization that has been evident since the beginning of the Ukraine war remained: With his war of aggression, Putin has put the West in a position in which there is hardly any opportunity to act. Except for decent weapons deliveries and secret service information, not much is possible, only the Ukrainians themselves can save the Ukraine. (Michael Meyns)