Habeck at Maybrit Illner
“Putin no longer acts in relation to reality”
By Marko Schlichting
4/29/2022 3:38 am
On the Maybrit Illner talk show, guests once again discuss how the war in Ukraine could be ended quickly. Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck defended Chancellor Scholz’s cautious approach to the issue of arms deliveries.
Ben Hodges is one of the far-sighted US military. As early as 2015, the former commander in chief of the US land forces had warned Europe of a Russian war. Russia is preparing for 2021, he wrote at the time.
Today Hodges is a national security adviser. In the ZDF program Maybrit Illner he sharply criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday evening. During the visit of UN Secretary-General Guterres in Kyiv, the Russian army fired two missiles at the Ukrainian capital. “It shows how little the Kremlin respects the UN,” says Hodges.
The current war is about more than Ukraine. That’s what Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said, and that’s what President Joe Biden said too. “We want to help Ukraine win this war and weaken Russia to the point where it can no longer threaten its neighbors,” says Hodges.
“A Dangerous Scenario”
The conversation with Hodges is the end of an informative discussion on the ZDF program, in which everyone involved praised the Bundestag decision on Thursday morning. The parliament approved the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine by a large majority. Chancellor Olaf Scholz had rejected this step last week with reference to the nuclear threat to Europe from Russia.
“Putin is no longer acting in a realistic and rational way,” said Vice Chancellor and Economics Minister Robert Habeck of the Greens, defending Scholz’s statement. Putin has nuclear weapons. The danger of the war escalating is abstract, he admits. “So that it doesn’t become concrete, every decision has to be made very carefully,” says Habeck.
When it comes to supplying weapons, Germany is in the upper Allied force field, explains Habeck, who is not on the show live. He was later heavily criticized indirectly for this by CDU leader Friedrich Merz. “This claim is a smokescreen,” said Merz in response to a similar statement by SPD leader Lars Klingbeil. The traffic light coalition had not reached agreement on their actions by Thursday. “Now we have it, and now we have to wait and see what happens,” says Merz. “But I think it’s irresponsible that the Chancellor is talking about a third world war and a nuclear war in this context.”
“Putin must not prevail”
In contrast to Merz and Habeck, SPD leader Klingbeil believes that the danger of a third world war is real. The deliveries of heavy weapons, which the federal government announced a few days ago, were planned in advance but would have had to be approved by the Federal Security Council, says the SPD leader, who is not a member of the committee.
Klingbeil: “I don’t want a chancellor who reports water levels. The issue is much too serious for that.” He uses these words twice to justify Olaf Scholz’s communication, which the other guests on the show don’t think too much about. Even Habeck thinks: “You have to admit that the reporting in the last few days has not been famous for us.” Three points are now important for the Green politician: “Russia must not win. Ukraine must not lose. Putin must not assert himself in Ukraine.”
Security expert Sabine Fischer shares the fear of many people in Germany that the war in Ukraine will escalate. “European security based on Russian ideas is what threatens us,” she says. German and European politics must now be built on three pillars: sanctions against Russia, weapons for Ukraine and diplomacy.
The Ukrainian government has defined clear goals for an end to the war, Fischer explains: Russian troops must withdraw from Ukraine, and the status of Crimea must be negotiated. In return, Ukraine offered neutrality with strong security guarantees.
For Hodges it is clear: “We would like to see our most important ally Germany take a leading role in Europe.” And he goes on to say: “It is important that the USA and Germany do everything to ensure that Ukraine can successfully end this war. (….) It’s about the sovereignty of the country, about democracy, about dignity. (….) I I am sure that Germany will play a very important role in this.”