The German Foreign Minister, the conservative Johann Wadephul, urged Russian President Vladímir Putin this Monday not to try to buy time with his international policy and advocated for greater pressure on the Kremlin to achieve a peace agreement. In a press conference in Zagreb, Wadephul indirectly alluded to Putin’s recent meeting with his American counterpart, Donald Trump, in Alaska and his alleged willingness to a peace agreement without a prior ceasefire, expressing his skepticism about the Kremlin chief’s intentions. While the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has expressed his willingness to dialogue, Putin does not seem prepared to meet with him soon, as proposed by Trump, the minister considered. “I fear that Russia only wants to buy time and that is visible in the reality of its reaction to this important diplomatic effort by US President Donald Trump,” Wadephul declared alongside his Croatian counterpart, Gordan Gelic Radman. However, he warned that the Russian leader may be mistaken and assured that the European Union (EU) will not give in on its support for Kyiv. “If President Putin thinks he can buy time, he will have miscalculated,” Wadephul declared. The minister stressed the importance of continuing to put pressure on Moscow, which is why, he recalled, the EU is preparing the nineteenth package of sanctions against Russia. In his opinion, “now it’s Putin’s turn to sit at the negotiating table” with Zelensky and show that he is truly willing to work for a just peace. “One thing is clear: there will be no negotiations that override the Ukrainian people. That is our common European promise,” Ukraine can count on “our continued political, economic and military support,” he emphasized. At the same time, he considered that the best guarantee against Russian aggression is Ukraine’s defensive preparation.
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