03/18/2024 – Translated from Ukrainian via Google and OFP
German Chancellor Scholz and French President Macron have appeared far apart on aid to Ukraine for some time now, following the latter’s statement that he “does not rule out” sending ground troops into Ukraine.
At the meeting in Berlin on March 15, the two simply had to demonstrate unity. And the summit in the Weimar Triangle format fulfilled its goal: Franco-German tensions decreased somewhat.
To reassure Scholz, Macron did not talk about the deployment of Western troops in Ukraine. The Chancellor, in turn, initiated a coalition of rocket artillery.
Moreover, the very next day after the meeting in Berlin, the French president still resolutely declared his readiness to conduct a ground operation against Russia in Ukraine, adding intrigue that he was no longer supported only by small countries. Thus, having demonstrated – his position remains unchanged.
Read about what the Weimar Triangle decided and how it will help Ukraine in the OBOZ.UA article.
Thaw for victory
The meeting in Berlin was supposed to end a phase of persistent disputes between France and Germany, which began after a conference in support of Ukraine organized in Paris on February 26.
Tensions increased further when Macron not only reaffirmed his words a few days later, but also said that it was now “not appropriate to be a coward,” arguing that those who impose “restrictions” on commitments to support Ukraine “choose not peace, but defeat.” It’s not hard to guess who the French reproached and for what.
The meeting showed that both leaders understand the seriousness of the threat of their confrontation, and therefore, at least officially, they agreed to help Ukraine in the fight against Russia on one front.
It is symbolic that it was Scholz who announced that the Western allies were creating a new coalition to supply the Ukrainians with “long-range rocket artillery.”
This is not the first time that Western countries have united into subgroups working together to supply Ukraine with certain types of weapons. The Netherlands, Denmark, Romania and several other countries have created a “fighter coalition”, France leads the “artillery coalition”, Great Britain and Latvia lead the production of combat drones. The new long-range rocket artillery coalition will join this ranks.
In addition, the German Chancellor said that EU countries intend to use the proceeds from frozen Russian assets to “buy even more weapons for Ukraine, on the entire world market.” Already on March 18, the defense ministers of NATO countries, during the next Ramstein, will discuss exactly how this direction will be implemented.
According to the calculations of the European Commission, the EU could receive 15 billion euros of income from the reinvestment of frozen assets of the Russian Federation by 2027. In total, about 208 billion Russian euros are frozen in Europe.
After the meeting, conciliatory statements were made, which were expected.
“Today, more than ever, our unity is our strength,” said the German Chancellor.
“The three countries are united and determined to never allow Russia to win and to support the Ukrainian people to the end,” the French President supported this message. “We will continue, as we have done from day one, never to take the initiative of any escalation,” Macron added, as if to reassure allies after statements about the possibility of sending troops into Ukraine in the future.
However, Scholz would not be Scholz if, after all that had been said, he had not added: “It is clear that we support Ukraine, but it is also clear that we ourselves are not in a state of war with Russia.”
Macron continues without restrictions
The very next day, the French President demonstrated that, in fact, he was not going to change his new path of supporting Ukraine.
“Perhaps at some point – I certainly don’t want this – ground operations, whatever they may be, will be required to counter Russian forces. France’s strength is that we can do this,” Macron said in an interview La Parisien again emphasized that there are no red lines for him.
According to him, Paris must prepare “for any scenario,” and the country’s General Staff is doing this. He also emphasized that many European countries “support the French line” and these are “by no means small” countries. Macron assured that France currently has no restrictions on supporting Ukraine for the sake of returning peace to Europe.
“To achieve this goal, we will not follow the path of escalation, because we do not need another war, but we are ready to say that we have no restrictions, and we will respond accordingly to how Russia behaves,” – explained the French President. In addition, he also promised to do everything to return Crimea to Ukraine, “since there can be no strong peace without the sovereignty of Ukraine and a return to internationally recognized borders, including Crimea.”
Now the main thing is shells, missiles, air defense systems
“For Ukraine, the importance of the meeting in Berlin is obvious. The announced decisions on the immediate increase in weapons and ammunition, as well as the creation of a new coalition of long-range missiles, are super relevant for the country. We hope that in the near future they will have consequences, and not just remain political signals.” , – this opinion was expressed in an exclusive commentary to OBOZ.UA by Ukrainian diplomat Igor Dolgov, who headed the Ukrainian embassies in Germany, Turkey, Belgium and Georgia, was the head of the Ukrainian Mission to NATO, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine for European Integration.
“It is important that the three leaders of the Weimar Triangle stated the need to urgently increase support for Ukraine by all means. It was also noticeable that the parties avoided talking about the issue of sending military troops to Ukraine. Now is not the time to talk about “is it necessary, when, how many foreign military units?” will be in Ukraine.”
The main thing today is shells, missiles, air defense systems. And the leaders of the three countries stated this very clearly and unequivocally. What is also important, and this should also be kept in mind, is that Polish President Duda and Prime Minister Tusk visited Washington before this meeting. Until now, the United States does not have an answer or even a time horizon for when the decision to allocate a multi-billion-dollar aid package for Ukraine will be made. Europe increasingly understands that it needs to rely on its own strength.
As for the situation with US help, there are several parallel stories that remain only possibilities for now. Because no one has ever seen a single text. Perhaps there is something in Congress, but it hasn’t reached us yet. At the same time, I very much doubt that President Biden will be ready to sign any project that provides for a loan to Ukraine. We also do not know what volumes we are talking about. From time to time there are reports that the supposed Republican proposal involves reducing the amount.
So far there are only words and hopes that this package will be accepted. All this imposes certain conditions and requirements on Europe. Each time this is an additional signal both for the leaders of the “triangle” countries and for the entire EU – they need to immediately increase their own capabilities. Because the aggressor can only be stopped with weapons. We need to develop everything we can.
In this regard, it was also important to state that Ukraine’s defense capabilities should be developed in Ukraine itself. Recently, it was announced about three new production sites in our country, which the German arms-making concern Rheinmetall AG intends to create together with our specialists. France will do the same.
It is important that France, Poland and Germany are ready to take a leadership role, are ready to initiate a sharp increase in aid and make decisions that would orient the EU towards ensuring self-sufficiency.
And another important signal is that the next meeting of the Weimar Triangle has already been announced and will take place in June, in Warsaw. Thus, such interaction is not an episode, but a clear program of action for the three leading countries of Europe,” noted Igor Dolgov.
I welcome this development, but I’m not fully satisfied by it. The collective West has never been really unified during this war. There had always been those who have failed to see the true scale of dangers that a mafia victory would bring with it and failed to stand their ground against it. Even to this day, there is no real unity. Hungary and Slovakia are living proof, and so is Scholz’s continued deep fear and incredible stubbornness over the Taurus missiles. A truly united and strong West could’ve taken steps to end this war in Ukraine’s favor a year ago already. But, fear has always been a big stumbling block. And being paid-for whores for the fascist regime in muscovy.
And, I think it is superfluous to mention the pro-mafia maga ruled US.
None of them have accepted that there is a real possibility of a complete end to US Aid. They should be planning and preparing for just such an eventuality.
In Robert Aldrich’s classic Hollywood movie All The Marbles; AKA The California Dolls, Peter Falk is the manager of a beautiful women’s wrestling tag team. It’s a story of overcoming seemingly impossible odds, but good wins over in the end.
In the climactic final match in Las Vegas, the Dolls are taking a ferocious beating from their unscrupulous opponents. Falk realizes that the hopelessly corrupt ref has been knobbled and keeps turning a blind eye to illegal holds. Falk keeps saying:
“come on ref, you can do a lot but you can’t do that!”
But whatever Peter says, the ref just ignores him and the unfair fight continues.
Eventually Peter hobbles into the ring with a cane and wearing shades in an obvious message to the ref. He appeals to the crowd who roar their support for his girls.
Eventually his girls secure a match-winning pin hold. All the ref has to do is count 1-2-3. But of course he doesn’t, because he will lose his bribe money and get the shit kicked out of him later.
After what seems an eternity, the ref starts to feel the pressure. Someone’s playing an organ going “1-2-3” with the crowd.
Realizing that he has been sussed, he finally counts 1-2-3 and the Dolls are victorious.
Spew-ker Johnson is that ref. He’s bent as fuck and with the morals of a weasel. His plan is to block and hold out indefinitely. Until what he expects to be the victory of the orange fucktard.
Can he succeed, or will someone stop him?
Thanks for the interesting anecdote.
Johnson is just like the ref. But, unfortunately, there is no crowd cheering for Ukraine. There is nothing anyone can do about his undemocratic and treasonous behavior. I’m afraid that our government has been turned into a maga circus show by him and Trump. My only hope is for a Biden win. Until then, we must get used to the idea of not getting any aid for Ukraine.
At this point, I would love to be proven wrong. Maybe … just maybe, the discharge petition will be a success, despite being a long shot. Or, he does change his mind for some reason, or some other miracle happens.
We have survived four years of Biden, we will survive four more years of Trump if he is elected (which he probably won’t be). We have survived centuries of changes of Administrations but the Republic is still here because of the Founder’s checks and balances.
Also regardless of who is elected, the inertia and gross incompetence of our government run by the hoards of unelected, unmotivated, and unaccountable bureaucrats will inevitably result in any Presidential decisions especially a Republican’s being implemented slooooowly (if at all).
Europe’s problem is they don’t really believe the “free” money from US taxpayers paying for their military defense for nearly half a century is seriously at risk of permanently ending. Since the United States is 34 trillion in debt, 1 trillion in interest payments per year etc. sooner rather than later the US will no longer be able to subsidize Europe’s military. It is decades past the time when they should have planned on picking up the slack.
This is one topic I fully agree with. I’ve been angered by Europe’s freeloading for years. A wake-up call was about time, but I wish it wouldn’t include thousands of additional deaths in Ukraine.