Supporting Ukraine: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz Calls for Unity and Security

2024-03-30 23:24:23
Photograph from March 27 showing the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz. EFE/EPA/Filip Singer

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called on his compatriots this Saturday to continue supporting Ukraine in its fight for a just peace, to invest in their own security and to maintain unity.

”Peace without freedom means oppression. There is no peace without justice. That is why we support Ukraine in its fight for a just peace, for as long as necessary. We also do it for ourselves, for our safety,” Scholz said in a video message on the occasion of Holy Week.

He added that for many decades peace in Europe has been based on the very central principle that “borders should not be moved by force, ever once more.”

However, he noted, President Vladimir Putin’s Russia “has broken this principle.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Moscow, Russia February 15, 2022. Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin via REUTERS/File

”But it is in our power to give effect once more to this principle precisely by continuing to support Ukraine, decisively and sensibly, by investing more in our own security, by staying united as a country, instead of allowing ourselves to be divided, especially because it unites us the conviction that the law must prevail over violence,” he said.

He added that “this is the precondition for peace, especially these days.”

”There is nothing our world needs more than peace. At Easter masses this weekend, Christians around the world pray for a more peaceful world,” he stated.

After the terrible terrorist attack by Hamas once morest Israel, war is present in the Middle East, “with terrible consequences for so many innocent people,” and for more than two years now, “Ukrainians have been suffering under Russia’s brutal attack,” he recalled.

”There is nothing they want more than peace. We all long for a more peaceful world,” she concluded.

Ukrainian troops are on the defensive on the battlefield, facing a shortage of artillery supplies, with theAmerican aid withheld in Congress and the European Union not delivering on time the ammunition it had previously promised.

Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky speaks with US House Speaker Mike Johnson via hotline, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kiev, Ukraine, March 28, 2024 Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via REUTERS

“If there is no support from the United States, it means we have no air defense, no Patriot missiles, no jammers for electronic warfare, no 155-millimeter artillery shells,” Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky said during an interview with The Washington Post. “It means we will go back, we will go back, step by step, in small steps.”

The Ukrainian military said its top commander, Oleksander Syrskyi, had spoken with the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Charles Brown, regarding battlefield issues. One account of the conversation, on Telegram, said Syrskyi discussed “the issue of vital US aid to Ukraine,” including strengthening defenses once morest Russian airstrikes and building fortifications.

“If you need 8,000 ammunition a day to defend the front line, but you only have, for example, 2,000, you have to do less,” Zelensky explained to the Post. “As? Of course, to go back. Shorten the front line. If it is cut, the Russians might go to the big cities.”

“We are trying to find some way not to retreat,” he said, while acknowledging that “if steps are not taken to prepare another counteroffensive, Russia will take them. That’s what we learned in this war: if you don’t do it, Russia will.”

When Post reporter David Ignatius asked him if Ukraine was running out of interceptors and other air defense weapons to protect its cities and infrastructure, the president responded: “That’s true. I don’t want Russia to know how many air defense missiles we have, but you’re basically right. Without Congressional support, we will have a large missile deficit. This is the problem. “We are increasing our own air defense systems, but it is not enough.”

(With information from EFE and Reuters)

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