Katja Hoyer Katja Hoyer

Germany is toothless when it comes to facing down Russia

Ukraine needs Germany's help. Berlin is in no position to offer it

Ukraine’s list of demands towards Germany is straightforward: it wants Berlin to stand up to Russia. With tens of thousands of Russian troops stationed on Ukraine’s border, its plea is urgent. It is just a matter of time before this week’s Russian-American security talks in Geneva end in a diplomatic stalemate. When that happens, an invasion could be imminent. But there’s bad news for Kiev: Berlin is in no position to help.

In an interview with the German press, Kiev’s man in Berlin, Andriy Melnyk, urged Angela Merkel’s successor to intervene quickly. Among Melnyk’s list of demands are arms supplies, ‘massive military support’, admission of Ukraine into the EU and Nato, as well as ‘a final end to Nord Stream 2’. Kiev’s ambassador attempted to put force behind these demands by evoking the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. He claimed the country had ‘the same responsibility to Ukraine that it has to Israel.’

Melnyk’s rather stark approach to diplomacy is sure to end in disappointment. After all, Germany cannot be guilt-tripped into a decision it isn’t in a position to make for. Over the last two decades, Germany has allowed itself to drift into a place from which it can’t act in Eastern Europe without consulting Russia first, a situation as historically evocative as Kiev’s reminders of Nazi crimes in Ukraine.

The decisions made and not made over recent years are catching up with Germany

Supplying arms to Ukraine would require a paradigm shift for Germany’s new chancellor Olaf Scholz. Under his predecessor, the country blocked Nato shipments of weapons to Ukraine referring to its War Weapons Control Act which bans arms sales where there is a danger that the supplied weapons might be used ‘in actions that disturb the peace, particularly in offensive wars.’

If Germany did not reevaluate this policy under a conservative government, it is even less likely to do so under the new coalition led by the Social Democrats, whose last chancellor Gerhard Schröder has long been a friend of Vladimir Putin’s.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in