German Foreign Minister says “I wish we could negotiate” with Putin

BERLIN, 16 July (DPA/EP) –

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Saturday that she “sees no basis for negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Ukraine in the foreseeable future.”

“I wish we could negotiate, but at the moment it’s not about what you want, it’s about facing reality,” Baerbock explained in a joint interview with Ukrainian army member and former boxing world champion Wladimir Klitschko for German newspapers Bild and Welt and the US digital outlet Politico, when asked if it would be possible to negotiate with Putin.

The minister has pointed out that, in the run-up to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, attempts had been made at the negotiating table to prevent escalation. “The response to that was that 100,000 soldiers entered,” she denounced.

“Ukraine must be able to regain peace,” Baerbock said, adding that “this will only work if this brutal Russian war of aggression is stopped, if Russian soldiers leave Ukraine and these daily nightly attacks by drones, missiles and bombs on Ukraine”.