Merz: Russia is not interested in peace - Europe should prepare for a protracted war in Ukraine

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated that Western efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Ukraine have so far been unsuccessful, and Russia's opposition indicates its lack of interest in peace negotiations. He stated this during a press conference in Turku, reports UNN.

Details

He stated this while answering journalists' questions about putting pressure on Putin to cease fire in Ukraine.

The experience of the last three weeks shows that the efforts we have made together in the European Union, as well as together with Great Britain and the United States of America, to achieve a ceasefire have not been successful so far. However, from the very beginning, I had no illusions that this could happen very quickly, but we made an attempt that reached as far as the Vatican. And if the Russian side is not even ready to accept the invitation of the Vatican or accept the mediation of the Vatican to come to a meeting in another territory, then this indicates that Putin and Russia are obviously not interested at the moment in reaching a ceasefire, truce or even a peace agreement

According to him, this development means that Ukraine must continue to defend itself, and partners must increase military support.

Merz emphasized that wars usually end not when diplomatic efforts are exhausted, but when one of the parties suffers military or economic exhaustion.

In this war, we are obviously still very far from this, so I expect that we may have to prepare for a longer period of time, but this does not change our determination to support Ukraine. And I say this so clearly, because it is not only about the territorial integrity of Ukraine

Let us remind

Earlier, Merz stated about increasing pressure on the governments of Hungary and Slovakia due to their position regarding Russia. In particular, the restraining role of both states in matters of EU sanctions against the Russian Federation