Germany's Merz sees little chance of swift end to war through talks

Ivanna Kostina, Alona Mazurenko - 19 February, 09:26

Friedrich Merz. Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka/picture alliance via Getty Images

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said he has little hope for a rapid end to Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.

Source: European Pravda, citing Merz in comments to the newspapers Neue Berliner Redaktionsgesellschaft (NBR) and Rheinpfalz, as reported by German newspaper Der Spiegel

Details: Merz sees few chances of a quick end to the war through negotiations. "In my view, this war will only end when one of the two sides is exhausted, either militarily or economically," he said.

As regards Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Merz added: "Rational and humanitarian arguments will not convince Putin. That is the bitter truth." He therefore said the goal of European efforts should be "to ensure that the Russian state cannot continue to wage war militarily or finance it economically".

Merz considers it "virtually impossible" for normal relations with Putin to ever be restored. "When I look at this regime and its furious terror, I have little hope."

In Merz's view, "the Russian ruling clique cannot do without war in the foreseeable future. It must keep the war machine running because it has no plan for what to do with hundreds of thousands of soldiers, some of whom have been severely traumatised, returning from the front," the chancellor said.

Merz quoted the French aristocrat and writer Astolphe de Custine, who, after travelling across Russia in the 19th century, wrote: "Russia in our time is the most remarkable country for an observer, because one can find in it both the deepest barbarism and the highest civilisation." Merz said this remains relevant today. "Right now, we see this country in a state of the deepest barbarism. This will not change in the foreseeable future, and we must accept it," the German chancellor said.

Background:

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said there is some progress in the military area of negotiations following trilateral talks between Ukraine, the US and Russia in Geneva on 17-18 February.
Axios journalist Barak Ravid reported that the Geneva talks had "got stuck", adding that the reason was the positions presented by Russia's chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky.
It was also reported that the Russian delegation called the Geneva talks "very tense".

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