German Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil believes that the time has not yet come to make a decision on the deployment of German armed forces in Ukraine.
“It is still too early to give such answers“, Klingbeil said on the Sat.1 television channel. First, according to him, “we have to wait and see if there will really be peace“ between Russia and Ukraine. However, if peace is achieved, as he said, then Ukraine needs security guarantees.
“First of all, a strong Ukrainian army is needed for this“, said Klingbeil. “And then we will see what else can be done. "But whether or not there will be German troops is not on the agenda," the German Vice Chancellor concluded.
There are currently lively discussions in Germany about the possible deployment of troops in Ukraine. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz left the question of the possible deployment of German troops in Ukraine open at a press conference after talks at the White House. He stressed that he would discuss this with the coalition in Berlin, including the question of whether the Bundestag would have to take "decisions that require a mandate." However, as the Chancellor stated, "it is too early to give a final answer to this question." The German government noted that discussions on security guarantees for Ukraine should not be limited to this issue.
In an interview with Fox News on August 19, Trump said that France, Germany and the United Kingdom want to deploy troops on Ukrainian territory. He indicated that while he is at the head of the US administration, there will be no American troops in Ukraine.
On August 18, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, stated that Russia does not accept any scenarios that imply the deployment of NATO contingents in Ukraine and that could lead to an uncontrolled escalation of the conflict.