And while Putin is stepping up attacks against civilian targets, there is international talk of possible negotiations with Russia and the inherent problem that Putin is being subpoenaed by the International Court of Justice. At least, this is how French President Emmanuel Macron expressed himself yesterday during his speech in Bratislava, Slovakia.
Negotiating with a suspect
According to Macron, it is a problem to want to see someone behind bars when they are also the only one with whom peace negotiations can be conducted. Hammelburg draws two conclusions from Macron’s speech. According to him, the negotiations will still take place in the coming months: “It is a very important signal from an important European leader that the thought is therefore not only to provide Ukraine with the means to defend itself, but also a situation after that.”
Each patriot costs 4 million dollars
Hammelburg also sees the difficulty of negotiating with someone wanted by the International Criminal Court. According to Hammelburg, Macron says in words that the summoning of the Russian head of state was not very useful.
Defensive – offensive
In short, there are changes in all kinds of areas. Another area of international concern is perceptions of Ukrainian self-defense. After the United Kingdom, Germany now also indicates that, as far as Berlin is concerned, drone attacks in the border region with Russia fall under the concept of “self-defence”. Hammelburg defines the complicated question: when an action is defensive or offensive.
An illustrative example is the tank: when deployed to resist an attack it is a defensive weapon, as soon as the tank moves in a counterattack it is an offensive weapon. Never mind that Hammelburg is finding it hard to see attacks on Moscow as purely defensive.
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