CDU foreign policy expert Kiesewetter
“Ukraine is threatening to disintegrate, there is a risk of mass exodus”
28.05.2024, 11:25 a.m.
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In the ntv program Frühstart, CDU foreign policy expert Kiesewetter praises French President Macron’s appeal for a common EU defense policy. He expects the Chancellor to do more to promote decisive action against Russia. Kiesewetter makes serious accusations against Scholz.
After French President Emmanuel Macron’s speech in Dresden, CDU foreign policy expert Roderich Kiesewetter called for the signals from Germany’s most important partner country to be taken seriously. Macron understood that Europe would be different after the war against Ukraine, Kiesewetter said on the ntv program Frühstart. “It will be more prepared for defense, more innovative, but also more easterly and northerly. That is why the appeal to strengthen European defense by increasing defense cooperation, more standardization, and improving cooperation is completely right.”
Macron has also stopped ruling out the deployment of Western soldiers on Ukrainian soil. Chancellor Olaf Scholz immediately rejected the proposal. Kiesewetter, on the other hand, would like to see a German chancellor with the same determination. “What sets Macron apart is that he is not setting red lines in his own actions against the Russian escalation, but is finally showing Putin what his further escalation means, namely more European engagement in a coalition of the willing.”
Scholz should advertise more instead of warning
Macron wants to send the first military instructors to Ukraine soon. “If France wants to do that, very good. They also don’t have the issue of parliamentary involvement,” said retired colonel and former chairman of the reservists’ association, Kiesewetter. In Germany, on the other hand, the Bundestag has to approve foreign deployments of the Bundeswehr. “But here I expect Scholz to do more to promote understanding among us, and for other states that do more, that are more present.”
Kiesewetter painted a drastic picture of the military situation in Ukraine. “Russia is escalating further, Ukraine is threatening to collapse, there is a threat of mass exodus,” said Kiesewetter. Germany and Ukraine’s other allies must do everything they can to stabilize the situation in Ukraine. “Otherwise Putin will expand the war,” warned the directly elected member of the Bundestag.
“Europe watched”
Possible measures include allowing Kiev to use Western weapons against Russian territory, as NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg had demanded. “The attack on Kharkiv was foreseeable. The Russians were three or four kilometers behind the border and were preparing their attack. And Europe watched and thousands of Ukrainians lost their lives again,” said Kiesewetter.
Russia has been advancing in the Kharkiv region for weeks and is increasingly shelling the former metropolis of the same name. Ukraine and Western experts had predicted this due to the concentration of Russian troops directly on the border with Kharkiv.
Kiesewetter blamed the German head of government for the fact that Ukraine is still not allowed to use Western weapons against Russian territory. “The Federal Republic of Germany, along with Hungary, is rather cautious in NATO when it comes to this support,” said Kiesewetter. “But that is the fault of the Chancellor, the Chancellery. It is not Pistorius’ fault, it is not the Foreign Minister’s fault, and it is not the fault of the Union either.”