In order to prevent a third world war, it is important to be vigilant, because one can also stumble into wars, said the Chancellor on ORF’s ZiB2 on Wednesday evening. “New solutions are needed so that the conflict can end,” emphasized Nehammer. He added that they were in a kind of “Western echo chamber” and that the BRICS countries should be brought on board.
Above all, the West needs China and India to look for a peace solution. These two countries must be spoken to on an equal footing. In the ORF broadcast, Nehammer saw Russian President Vladimir Putin in a dead end because he had not achieved any of his strategic goals. Not only has NATO grown to include Sweden and Finland, but the countries in the defense alliance will now also spend more money again, as the USA has long been demanding. He added that at the special Ukraine summit in Paris on Monday there was no Western majority opinion to send soldiers to Ukraine. In an interview with oe24.tv, Nehammer had previously said that Putin had it in his hands to end the war.
- Video: The interview with Chancellor Nehammer
Scholz: “No soldiers in Ukraine”
Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz promised the German Bundeswehr and his country’s citizens on Wednesday that his rejection of sending ground troops to Ukraine is an immovable red line. “To be clear: As German Chancellor, I will not send soldiers from our Bundeswehr to Ukraine,” he said in a video message on Wednesday. “That’s true. Our soldiers can rely on that. And you can rely on that.”
NATO will not become a warring party, Scholz added. “It stays that way.” Germany agrees with its allies: “We don’t want Russia’s war against Ukraine to turn into a war between Russia and NATO.”
Spain is also not sending troops
Spain, along with other EU countries, also spoke out against the deployment of Western ground troops on Wednesday. “There will be no Spanish troops in Ukraine, of course not, because we want peace, which is exactly what the Ukrainian government also wants,” Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said in the Madrid parliament.
The Baltic country of Latvia is not fundamentally opposed to such an operation. “Latvia continues to examine many different options to strengthen support for Ukraine. If there is an agreement among NATO allies to send troops to Ukraine, Latvia would consider participating,” said a Defense Ministry spokesman .
On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron did not rule out the use of ground troops after a meeting of around 20 heads of state and government in Paris. Scholz had immediately rejected this on Tuesday. It was also agreed for the future “that there will be no ground troops, no soldiers on Ukrainian soil that will be sent there by European states or NATO states.”
