Scholz: putin will not win the war in Ukraine and will not dictate terms of peace
putin will start serious negotiations only after acknowledging that war cannot be won, Scholz says
russia will not win the war in Ukraine, and president putin should not dictate the terms of any peace agreement, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Thursday, Reuters reports.
Failing to capture the capital, Kyiv, or its second-largest city, Kharkiv, in three months, russian troops are trying to seize full control of the eastern Donbass region and are advancing south despite Ukraine's fierce resistance and tough Western sanctions on moscow.
“Putin must not win his war, and I am convinced he will not win,” Scholz said in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “A capture of the whole Ukraine seems less real now than at the beginning of the war.”
Although some have suggested that Ukraine should negotiate with putin and consider ceding territory, Scholz rejected the idea of letting putin dictate the terms of an agreement.
“There will be no dictated peace,” Scholz added. “Ukraine will not accept this, neither will we.”
According to him, putin is likely to start serious negotiations only after he admits that the war cannot be won, which makes further support of Ukraine by the West extremely necessary.
Scholz, however, did not respond to Ukraine's demands to supply more heavy weapons to Kyiv, despite specific requests from Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Davos the day before.
According to Kuleba, Kyiv wanted to buy German Marder infantry fighting vehicles and, ideally, the Leopard battle tanks, but did not make significant progress in relations with the government in Berlin.
Hoping to weaken russia's economy and, consequently, its ability to wage war, Scholz said that Germany would stop importing russian oil by the end of 2022 and reduce its dependence on russian gas.
It will be recalled that Dmytro Kuleba stated that Ukraine needs supplies of multiple rocket launchers as soon as possible, and called on the United States to take the first step in this direction.
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