8 Friday March 18 2022 | the times
News
President Zelensky has urged Ger-
many to stop dithering and prioritising
“business, business, business” in a
scathing speech to the Bundestag that
invoked memories of the Third Reich
and the Berlin Wall.
Addressing German MPs by video-
link from Kyiv, the Ukrainian leader
said that a “new wall” was rising in the
heart of Europe and Germans would be
“ashamed” of themselves if they did not
do more to help Ukraine.
He accused Germany of ignoring
years of warnings about the Kremlin’s
intentions, dragging its feet on sanc-
tions such as an embargo on Russian
fossil fuels, and hindering Ukraine’s
efforts to join the European Union.
Zelensky said Germany’s reticence
suggested it had failed to learn the les-
sons of the crimes by the Nazi regime in
Ukraine during the Second World War,
including the murder of as many as
1.6 million Ukrainian Jews and the
bombing of the city of Chernihiv.
“What is historical responsibility
worth if you still don’t regret what hap-
pened 80 years ago?” he said.
Echoing President Reagan’s appeal to
President Gorbachev in 1987 to dis-
mantle the Berlin Wall, Zelensky
turned directly to Olaf Scholz, the Ger-
man chancellor: “Chancellor Scholz,
tear down this wall. Show yourself to be
the leader Germany deserves, so that
your descendants will be proud of you.”
Dwelling on the Russian siege of
Mariupol, where hundreds of civilians
have been killed and children have died
from starvation and dehydration, he
called on Germany to help “make the
skies safe” with a no-fly zone, which he
likened to the 1948-49 Berlin airlift.
“I appeal to you in the name of all the
Ukrainians who survived the [Second
World] War, who 80 years ago livedthrough [German] occupation, through
Babyn Yar,” he said, alluding to the site
in Kyiv where the SS massacred more
than 33,000 Jews in two days.
“You said this could never be repeat-
ed. Once again, there is an attempt in
Europe to destroy an entire people.
Why? Why? For what reason?”
As the German translator’s voice
cracked with emotion and several ofthe listening MPs appeared close to
tears, Zelensky, 44, continued: “I appeal
to you in the name of the soldiers who
defend the values of our country, the
values you often speak of here in
Europe: that people can live in freedom
and not be subjugated to a country that
thinks we belong to it.”
In recent weeks the Ukraine crisis
has led the German government to jet-tison many of its old dogmas: it has in-
definitely suspended the Nord Stream 2
gas pipelines from Russia, sent Ukraine
anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons,
and supported the heaviest package of
sanctions the European Union has yet
imposed on Russia.
However, Zelensky said this was not
enough, calling on Germany to drop its
opposition to a limited western militaryStop dithering and help, Zelensky
Oliver Moody Berlin
Q&A
What peace talks have taken place?
There have been at least four rounds of
negotiations, most of them in Belarus
or on the Ukrainian side of the border.
Last week Ukraine and Russia’s foreign
ministers held apparently fruitless talks
in the Turkish resort of Antalya.
Officials have also been working on a
deal. President Zelensky has said he
wants to conduct negotiations in
person with President Putin.What about back channels or
intermediaries?
Several countries have positioned
themselves as potential go-betweens.
The most active figure has been Naftali
Bennett, the prime minister of Israel,
who visited Putin a fortnight ago,
apparently at Ukraine’s behest. Heremains in regular telephone contact
with Moscow and Kyiv. Turkey, which is
a Nato member but maintains a
working relationship with Russia, is also
involved, in concert with Tel Aviv.
Another possible player is China:
western countries believe its role as the
largest trading partner of Ukraine and
Russia could allow it to play a crucial
role. Gerhard Schröder, the former
German chancellor and friend of Putin,
has also visited Moscow, supposedly in
the hope of brokering a bargain for
peace. However, Ukraine has dismissed
his efforts as a “totally useless” fiasco.Why would Putin want peace?
In short, because an outright victory
appears to be out of reach. After swift
gains on the first day his forces have
made little progress, and are believed
to be running low on fuel, manpower
and morale. Even if the Russians take
Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa, it is unclear
whether they have the strength andresources to hold them. At the same
time the Russian economy has been
hammered by sanctions. The most
significant advances have been along
the coast of the Black Sea and the Sea
of Azov, where only the beleaguered
city of Mariupol stands in the way of a
continuous stretch of occupied
territory from the Donbas to the
Crimea. If Putin can use some of these
gains as leverage for a peace deal he
may have a face-saving retreat.What might such a deal look like?
Ukraine wants at the very least a
ceasefire and the withdrawal of all
Russian forces. Putin has said he wants
to “demilitarise” Ukraine, which would
probably mean some kind of formal
neutrality, such as a renunciation of its
ambition to join Nato, limits on its
armed forces and a binding
commitment not to allow the West to
establish military bases on its soil.
There may well be room formanoeuvre between these objectives.
The Kremlin has offered Ukraine a form
of neutrality similar to the positions of
Austria and Sweden, which have strong
economic and political ties to the West
but are not members of Nato. This was
rejected by Kyiv, but Zelensky has said
Ukraine is unlikely to enter the alliance.What are the sticking points?
Some of the trickiest and most
rancorous questions are territorial.
Yesterday Ukraine insisted it would not
compromise on the borders
established during the collapse of the
Soviet Union in 1991. However, Russia is
likely to try to peel away areas
including the Crimea, which was
occupied and annexed by Russia in
2014, and the self-declared “people’s
republics” of Luhansk and Donetsk in
the southeast, whose independence
was recognised by Moscow shortly
before the invasion. Even if Kyiv is
prepared to make more concessionsNews War in Ukraine