Security expert Christian Mölling warns of efforts, particularly in Germany and the USA, to come to terms with the status quo in Ukraine and Russia’s territorial gains. He says in the stern podcast “Ukraine – the situation” that it would be wrong on several levels to separate developments in Ukraine from our security. The interests of Ukraine and its Western partners are not completely identical, but they face the same challenge. “What unites us is that the aggressor is the same, and the aggressor’s motivation is the same: he wants to restore imperial Russia,” says the research director of the German Society for Foreign Policy. Russia’s behavior in recent years proves this, as does the rhetoric of its leadership. It would therefore be dangerous to give in to Russia. Therefore, there should be no efforts to “force this war to a temporary end because the West is losing courage – and this particularly affects Washington and Berlin.”
In the USA, the focus is particularly on President Joe Biden’s chances in the upcoming presidential election. “The impression is that the Americans say, above all, that Biden does not want to go into the election campaign as a wartime president.” In Germany, on the other hand, the feeling is gaining importance that this war is intolerable and that a way out must therefore be sought. At the same time, understanding of the connection between the war in Ukraine and one’s own security has decreased. Mölling says: “In Germany it’s more like saying, we said from the beginning that negotiations have to take place at some point – and sometime is now.”
From Mölling’s point of view, Russia is very cleverly and successfully placing the responsibility on the West for the fact that negotiations have not yet taken place and there is still no peace. “There is a carrot being held in front of our noses that we will never get,” he says, referring to the chances of negotiating a stable peace solution with Russia under the current conditions.
For the West and NATO, Russia’s course means that strong armed forces are necessary to protect their own security. “We must be able to beat Russia on the battlefield at any time,” says the expert. In the past, people only demanded that it be possible to stop Russia. But that is no longer enough – it is also necessary to take back territory that Russia has gained. “This is a change,” he emphasizes. And warns: “We are slipping back into a defensive logic.” This must be prevented.
