Dusseldorf How and when could the war in Ukraine end? Is that even possible with a Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin? And how tight is it in the saddle? The fourth episode of the Handelsblatt podcast special “One year of war in Ukraine” deals with these questions. Oleksiy Makeyev, the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, cites “the end of imperialist thinking and a democratic Russia” as the prerequisites for a peace solution.
However, this is not evident either in the Russian leadership or in the population. In Putin’s speech on Tuesday this week, it once again became clear that he was not at all willing to negotiate and continued to deny Ukraine’s right to exist. Makeyev comments on China’s mediation efforts in no uncertain terms: “We don’t need mediators, we need allies.”
Alexander Gabuev, senior fellow at the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace, currently sees no danger for Putin. Based on surveys, he assumes that around a fifth of the Russian population supports the war in Ukraine. About another fifth oppose it. Many of them wanted to leave the country. About 60 percent of the population is not interested in the war issue. This “huge wave of passivity” legitimizes Putin’s actions. With harsh penalties for individual protesters, the government is deliberately stirring up fear among the population.
More: Listen to the third episode of the podcast special on the Ukraine war here
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