“Hard but fair” on the Ukraine war
“Ukraine becomes Russia’s Stalingrad”
By Marko Schlichting
03/01/2022 02:33 am
Even on the fifth day of the war, fighting continues in Ukraine. At the same time, more and more people are leaving the country. Two of the topics in the ARD program “Hart – aber fair”, in which Frank Plasberg discusses the consequences of the Ukraine war with his guests.
The war in Ukraine lasted five days, much longer than Russian President Vladimir Putin had thought. Apparently he had expected his army to march through for two days. Already on Saturday, the Russian state news agency accidentally published a comment online for a short time celebrating the victory. Too early.
The battle for the capital Kyiv is still going on, and the Ukrainians are fighting back bitterly. At the same time, more and more people want to leave the country. It is said that half a million Ukrainians are fleeing abroad. A wave of helpfulness awaits them there. Even Hungary’s President Orbán, who has hitherto been more of an opponent of European refugee policy, wants to take in people from Ukraine.
In addition, the sanctions imposed by the EU and the USA are beginning to have an effect, although not all of the existing options have been exhausted by a long shot. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin has responded and put his nuclear weapons on high alert. Topics that moderator Frank Plasberg discussed with his guests on the ARD program “Hart – aber fair” on Monday evening. Surprisingly there for a short time: the Ukrainian ambassador Andrij Melnyk.
“Putin unpacks the big dishes”
First, ex-NATO General Hans-Lothar Domröse looks at the current situation in Ukraine, where street fighting is raging in many cities. There, tanks would now be fired at from basements or subway shafts. Domröse compares this with the partisan fights in Afghanistan, except that there the tanks in the valleys were attacked by the fighters on the mountains. Nevertheless, he says: “It could be an Afghanistan 2.0.”
He is, quite literally, “terrified” by the Russian military strategy. The Russian soldiers lacked attack momentum and coordination. That’s why Putin has now unpacked the “big cutlery” and is threatening to use nuclear weapons. These could be small weapons with which one could completely destroy a village or a town.
The moderator asks the political scientist Sabine Fischer whether the peace negotiations that began on Monday afternoon could bring a quick end to the war. She waves it off. She would not describe the talks in Belarus as peace negotiations. After all, the Russians did not send any really relevant participants in the negotiations. Sanctions were even imposed on one of them. That’s why she prefers to talk about the start of ceasefire negotiations.
For the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Bundestag, Michael Roth from the SPD, the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine have a very important reason. Support for the war is very low in Russia, he says. In addition, Vladimir Putin underestimated the resistance of the Ukrainian people and the unity of the West. “And then he’s dealing with a Ukrainian president who behaves so intelligently and responsibly that Putin’s ugly face is even more of a deterrent,” he says.
“We’re talking about local battles here”
If the vast majority of Russians have a heart and compassion, then what Putin has been saying for a long time is now taking revenge. “Putin has always spoken of brother people in Ukraine, and you don’t wage such a war against sisters and brothers.” Even the people in the West who would have supported Putin for a long time remained silent or changed their minds, says Roth. Sabine Fischer explains that it is mainly young people in Russia who are more likely to get information from social media than from Russian state television. That’s about 30 percent of the population, she says. The number of critics in Russia is growing as the war becomes bloodier. There have already been peace demonstrations in many cities, despite numerous arrests.
For the SPD politician, this is also a reason why Putin is now threatening to use his nuclear weapons. “Putin has his back against the wall and he is now using something to show strength in his country, but also to spread fear and terror in Western countries.” Then he warns: “If we allow doubts to be nurtured now, then Putin could win politically. We must not allow that.”
Domröse also believes that Putin is afraid. “Anyone who pulls out the big cutlery so early must be desperate.” Domröse was a soldier for a very long time, and he knows what he’s talking about. “We’re talking about local battles here,” he says. “No soldier likes to do that because he knows: whoever goes in there is already half dead.”
“Russia is a colossus with feet of clay”
Then the Ukrainian Ambassador Andriy Melnyk has his say, and first thanks the many people in Germany who demonstrated for peace in Ukraine on Sunday. No proposal that has come from Moscow so far is negotiable for his country. The war will drag on. “The Ukrainians are ready to fight for their rights and values,” says Melnyk. 40 million people live in Ukraine and they will fight as long as possible, said Melnyk.
“Putin overestimated himself. He lost this war a long time ago, and he knows it. Russia is a colossus with feet of clay, and Russia will find its Stalingrad in Ukraine,” emphasizes the ambassador. For Melnyk it is important that the loopholes in the sanctions have to be closed. All Russian banks would have to be completely excluded from the Swift system.
He also calls for an import ban on gas, oil, coal and metals from Russia. But the most important thing for the Ukrainian ambassador: “Today my president addressed the EU states with the request that Ukraine be given the prospect of joining the EU. I would like to pass that on here. It is important for my compatriots to act now, And don’t wait until it’s too late.”