Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (1998- 2005) advised those who consider a military victory over Russia possible to look in the history books, TASS reported.
Speaking at an event organized by the Swiss publication Weltwoche, Schröder said that Russia cannot be defeated militarily. “I advise anyone who believes in this to look in the history books”, the Welt newspaper quoted him as saying. He recalled that neither Napoleon nor Hitler managed to defeat Russia. According to Schröder, the majority of Russians support President Vladimir Putin. “They are convinced that the West is only using Ukraine as the tip of the spear to bring Russia to its knees,” said the former chancellor.
Schröder believes that the West underestimates the possible prospect of escalation of the conflict in Ukraine. He called Russia's actions a "serious mistake," but pointed out that the West is ignoring Russia's historically grounded security interests. “We Germans are the ones who, in the light of the history of the Second World War and the crimes committed in the name of Germany, must act carefully and constructively,“, urged the former chancellor. He believes that the EU should tie support for Ukraine to demands that Kiev present realistic scenarios for achieving peace. “And this war will have to end through negotiations. In any case, it cannot be solved by military means. Compromises will be necessary, Schröder believes.
He also touched on his role during the negotiations between the Russian Federation and Ukraine in Istanbul in 2022. According to him, then Ukraine rejected offers to hold talks in Switzerland and Dubai, and in the end the parties settled on Turkey. The wife of the former chancellor keeps the minutes. Schroeder claims that, contrary to some media reports, peace is close. His compromise plan was for Ukraine to keep Donbass, and for Crimea, a “Yugentirol solution” was envisaged, that is, the creation of a Russian enclave. In addition, the plan did not provide for the accession of Ukraine to NATO.
However, according to Schröder, the government of Vladimir Zelensky cannot make decisions freely and this did not allow peace to be achieved then. According to the former chancellor, they believed that continued military action would supposedly weaken Russia. Now the former chancellor pins hopes for peace on the rise to power in the US of Donald Trump, who, according to Schröder, is still not indifferent to Europe. The EU and Germany, after Ukraine, suffered the most from the conflict, according to the former chancellor. He expressed regret that there is no close cooperation between Germany and France and that they have not been able to jointly influence the US to resolve the situation in Ukraine.