2023-06-12 22:35:11
According to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Russian President Vladimir Putin underestimated the unity of Europe when he decided to invade Ukraine. “Germany, France and Poland are close to Ukraine,” said Scholz on Monday evening in Paris at a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and Poland’s head of state Andrzej Duda. Macron said Ukraine’s counteroffensive might last “several weeks or months.”
“We hope that she will be as victorious as possible so that a negotiation phase can then begin under good conditions,” stressed the French President. The goal is “to help Ukraine retake the territory, but never to attack Russia.” “We continue to deliver and try to keep the delivered material operational,” Macron said, referring to the support provided to Ukraine through arms deliveries and maintenance.
Ukraine will be supported to the best of our ability, including with weapons – “and we will do so for as long as it is necessary,” emphasized the German Chancellor. Macron, Duda and he had independently assured the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj of this, Scholz said at the meeting in the Weimar Triangle format. “We stand together and coordinate closely with each other. This unity is our strength.”
Putin “criminally underestimated this strength when he decided to carry out the fatal attack.” It is time for the Russian President to see this and end the war “with hundreds of thousands of dead”.
Duda appealed to the NATO member countries to offer Ukraine a perspective in the defense alliance. “Ukraine is waiting for a clear signal regarding a clear prospect of NATO membership,” said Duda. This is the expectation of the Ukrainian leadership and the soldiers defending the country attacked by Russia. Duda said he hopes that the forthcoming NATO summit in Vilnius will bring the “light at the end of the tunnel” that Ukraine is longing for.
Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner (ÖVP) said late Monday evening on ORF’s ZiB3 that military neutrality was “very clear” to her. “That means not joining any military alliance in the foreseeable future,” stressed Tanner. When asked regarding the demining debate that popped up in Austria a few weeks ago, the minister said: “We’ve been helping with demining for a long time within the framework of the OSCE.” But, as she went on to explain, “now in the war” no army in Ukraine is engaged in demining.
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