For example, the town of Bachmoet was fought for eight months without significant results, although the Russians appear to have finally forced a breakthrough there. According to foreign commentator Bernard Hammelburg, US President Joe Biden told Zelensky months ago to give up the city. “Stop it, it’s just a symbol, go focus on a spring offensive.”
Diplomacy
Rosenthal calls this a “relevant point”. According to him, it is also interesting what would happen if a spring offensive actually began and Ukrainian troops approached the Crimea. Zelensky reportedly said he would be willing to negotiate over Crimea in that case, according to Rosenthal a signal that he was being pressured by the United States. ‘The world’s major powers, the United States on one side and China on the other, have both drawn some red lines. I think America has made it known not to go to war in Crimea and China has told Putin not to embark on nuclear adventures.
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Despite this, Western foreign ministers, including Wopke Hoekstra, have so far refused to comment on whether a compromise should be sought. “That’s not what we’re about, that’s what Ukraine is about,” according to Hammelburg, is invariably the answer. “I think it’s a stupid answer. Because either you show solidarity and say ‘boys, until the end’, or you have to make concessions, and then you have to say it openly.’
Europe pays
According to Rosenthal, the diplomatic language of foreign ministers is probably not representative of the way conversations are conducted in the background of “silent diplomacy”. “Both from the American and Chinese sides. I recently heard a former German Bundeswehr Chief of Staff say that it will look like this: America and Russia sit across from each other, Ukraine is there and can participate in the discussion, and Europe pays.”
At least Europe will then pay for the reconstruction, Rosenthal says, and the longer the war goes on, the greater the pressure from America to increase military spending and support for Ukraine.