Pistorius described Putin’s claims that the war was over as yet another deception
Boris Pistorius made this statement at a briefing in Kyiv with Ukrainian Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, according to “European Truth”.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius believes that Vladimir Putin’s statements about the war against Ukraine allegedly drawing to a close may be yet another attempt at deception.
During the briefing in Kyiv, Pistorius stated that Putin is using such statements to divert attention from his own weakness.
According to the German minister, the Kremlin leader is currently unable to demonstrate any new territorial gains, whilst the Russian army continues to lose some of the territories it has captured.
“Precisely because Putin is still deceiving and manipulating the public, it must be said that our duty as Ukraine’s partner is to further strengthen Ukraine militarily,” Pistorius said.
He emphasised that if Putin really wanted to end the war, he could do so simply by withdrawing his troops from Ukraine.
Another option, according to Pistorius, is to propose concrete negotiations without preconditions.
“I hope I am wrong in thinking this is yet another attempt at deception, but it cannot be ruled out, and it appears to be part of his hybrid war,” said the German Defence Minister.
Pistorius also pointed out that during previous negotiation processes, Putin had repeatedly violated agreements.
“Every time there were talks about a ceasefire or peace, he ultimately played with a stacked deck or behaved completely differently from what had been agreed or stated during the negotiations,” he said.
What preceded the statement
On 9 May, Vladimir Putin stated that, in his view, the war between Russia and Ukraine was allegedly nearing its end.
At the same time, he claimed that Western countries were not ready to acknowledge this due to their continued policy of confrontation.
Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov also stated that the Kremlin leader was allegedly ready to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but only in Moscow.
Furthermore, Putin proposed former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder as a possible mediator to re-engage the European side in negotiations to end the war.
Ukraine has opposed this idea.
Official Berlin also did not support Putin’s proposal regarding Schröder as an EU mediator. In Germany, this was seen as an attempt to sow division in Europe and among German politicians.
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