Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selelnskyj has criticized the statements made by Germany's ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in his daily video address. Without naming Schroeder, Selelnskyj said: "It's just disgusting when former leaders of powerful states with European values work for Russia, which fights against these values." In an interview with Stern after his trip to Moscow, Schröder described Russia as willing to negotiate. The Ukrainian President doubts that. Russia is only pretending to be willing to negotiate. Zelenskyy said that if Russia were really interested in a peaceful solution to the conflict, it would not now be massing more reserves in southern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is similarly critical of Schröder's statements. "There is nothing more cynical than the claims made by Putin supporters that Russia is ready to negotiate," he wrote on his Twitter channel on Wednesday. The daily shelling of Ukrainian territory says otherwise, he said.
The Ukrainian chief diplomat referred to heavy artillery fire and rocket attacks against civilian objects. In addition, he once again accused the Russian military of serious war crimes. "Russia remains focused on the war - everything else is a cloud of smoke," added Kuleba.
The outgoing Ukrainian ambassador Andriy Melnyk took the same line: he saw no sign that Putin was ready to negotiate, he said on ZDF. "The first sign would be if Putin stopped shooting at civilians and bombing cities, at least now. That would be better news than what we have just heard from Mr. Schröder."
At the same time Zelenskyj criticized the global security architecture. This is insufficient. There are currently headlines about conflicts in the Balkans, around Taiwan and the Caucasus, which are one factor: "The global security architecture didn't work," said Zelenskyj.
Once again Zelenskyy accused Russia of violating international law with its war of aggression. The problem is that the world has long let Russia get away with these violations, be it the annexation of Crimea or the downing of a Boeing over Donbass. The war in Ukraine shows how fragile freedom is. It can "only be protected by collective action, and for this to work in the long term, an effective global security architecture is required that ensures that no state can ever again use terror against another state," Zelenskyj demanded.
