Wallace warns against freezing the war in Ukraine
Published: Friday, Apr 26th 2024, 05:20
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The British ex-defense minister Ben Wallace has warned against a freeze in the war in Ukraine. He was referring to statements made by Rolf Mützenich, leader of the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag. In an interview with the German Press Agency on Thursday, Wallace said that Mützenich had to put up with the question of how the freezing of the conflict had turned out for the Ukrainians last time. The country had lost 18,000 soldiers between the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the invasion two years ago.
"The problem with the freeze is that you have to guarantee it," said Wallace. "But we have tried to do that and the Ukrainians would say that Britain, America, Germany and France have not fulfilled that guarantee." The Ukrainians could now demand Nato membership in return for a freeze, Wallace said. "They could say: 'Give us Nato membership. Let's draw a line wherever that may be, but what's left is Nato'."
When asked whether this could be a viable solution, Wallace did not want to commit himself. "I don't want to speculate on what a deal might look like. Ukraine has to decide that, they are the ones who have lost thousands of people. And they are fighting for us now. We are not fighting." Germany, France and not least Russia would not get involved, Wallace believes.
Without sufficient security guarantees, a freeze in the conflict would only lead to Russia rearming, repositioning itself and attacking again, as happened after the annexation of Crimea, he warned. Furthermore, we must not make the mistake of thinking that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a rational player. Putin wants to conquer Ukraine out of a conviction about its historical affiliation to Russia and will try again and again. "We have to put Russia in a position where they have something to lose," said Wallace.
At the end of March, during a debate in the Bundestag on the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine, Mützenich asked: "Isn't it time we not only talked about how to wage war, but also thought about how to freeze a war and end it later?" He was sharply criticized for this by the CDU/CSU, but also by his coalition partners, the Greens and the FDP. Mützenich later contradicted the question in an interview as to whether the term "freeze" did not mean that Ukraine should give up the parts of the country occupied by Russia. "The term "freeze" means that nothing has been finally decided. But that negotiations are taking place first."
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