Baerbock with Sandra Maischberger
“You can’t trust Russian announcements”
By Marko Schlichting
3/31/2022 4:16 am
Foreign Minister Baerbock says Ukraine can be sure of Germany’s solidarity. But what does that mean specifically? For example, Germany can give security guarantees if the country commits to a status of neutrality, she explains to Sandra Maischberger. The possibility of an energy import ban is also discussed.
In Ukraine, the Russian war of aggression continues unabated. Especially the city of Mariupol in the south of the country is still fought over. Russia has now announced a ceasefire in the city for today, Thursday. The Russian Defense Ministry announced that there would be a “regime of silence” in the besieged Ukrainian port. There are still 160,000 civilians trapped there. The Russian measure is intended to enable the opening of a humanitarian corridor to the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhia in order to bus refugees out of the city.
Meanwhile, peace talks between Russia and Ukraine are scheduled to resume online on Friday. However, the Russian side rejected a meeting between the two presidents proposed by Ukraine. Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock expects difficult negotiations. She let that slip on Wednesday evening on “Maischberger. Die Woche” on ARD.
“You can’t trust Russian announcements,” the minister said on the show. The Russian government promised not to bomb humanitarian corridors and then failed to do so. “And if you say on the one hand that you are conducting peace talks, as the Russian side calls the negotiations, and on the other hand the bombing and occupation of Mariupol are continuing, then the back and forth don’t go together.”
Baerbock assures German help
According to Baerbock, the situation in Ukraine is desperate. “That’s why we support these talks where we can.” They would have to continue. Baerbock appealed to Russia to stop bombing civilians in Ukraine immediately if the talks were really serious.
“The Russian side is on the defensive”
According to the Foreign Minister, it is difficult to judge whether the Russian army is retreating. You can see that the city of Odessa is not being attacked at the moment, but you also know the speeches of Russian President Vladimir Putin. And yet: “We know that there have been significant losses on the Russian side. Then the fuel will run out. Then there will be no food supplies from the Russian side. The Russian side is on the defensive.” According to Baerbock, a reorganization of the army is necessary because otherwise important supply chains could no longer be maintained. “In any case, we’re protecting Ukraine with arms deliveries, and we’re making sure to close the gaps left in Ukraine by the sanctions against Russia,” said Baerbock.
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has proposed Ukraine’s neutrality, which, however, must be protected by other countries. One of these countries could be Germany. Baerbock: “We stand in full solidarity on the side of Ukraine, because Ukraine is not only fighting for its own freedom, its own peace and for the future of its own people, but also for the freedom of Europe and for our peaceful order, which has been attacked became.” Germany will always support Ukraine, “And if guarantees are needed, Germany will be there and give these guarantees.”
Baerbock against immediate import stop
However, Baerbock rejects an immediate ban on imports of Russian energy resources. Germany might not be able to keep up with that. Even if they did, the necessary raw materials would have to be imported from other countries, and then they would no longer be available to countries like Lebanon or Indonesia, which urgently need them. “We have to go together with other countries to phase out fossil fuels, otherwise all the support we now have from the majority of countries in the world will collapse overnight.” However, Germany will become independent of raw material supplies from Russia this year, by winter at the latest. “We will make a complete exit,” promised the Foreign Minister.
At the end of the conversation with Sandra Maischberger, Baerbock promised that the federal government would do everything possible to ensure that war did not come to Germany. The children in Germany in particular should be spared from this. “But the war is taking place in the middle of Ukraine,” she said, “and we have to do everything we can to ensure that Ukrainian children can also live in peace.”