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The situation in the morning - negotiations with Putin, tanks for Ukraine, exclusive survey on Gerhard Schröder

2022-04-27T03:46:20.802Z


When the war ends, Europe needs new security. Germany now wants to deliver (old) tanks after all. And Gerhard Schröder will be expelled from the SPD – if the Germans had their way. This is the situation on Wednesday.


At some point this war will also end

But when?

And how?

Even if there is no change in Russia - the vast majority of Russians obviously support Putin and his campaign of annihilation against Ukraine - then there is still a need for a plan for the "day after", for the time after this war and with Putin .

Can there be a face-saving solution for this man?

Can a war criminal save face?

Either way, the Ukrainians will have to negotiate with him, but he must not dictate the peace.

For this, Ukraine needs a strong negotiating position, i.e. military successes, i.e. heavy weapons.

And beyond?

At a Ukraine conference at Ramstein Air Force Base in Rhineland-Palatinate, where the US had called together supporters from all over the world on Tuesday, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin described it this way: Ukraine needs “our help to win.

And she will need our help when the war is over."

Russia will remain a revisionist power and will not come to terms with its borders.

It is to be feared that Putin's goal is not just the annexation of fake people's republics in eastern Ukraine, but the reshaping of Europe.

And that means first and foremost pushing the Americans out of this Europe.

At least if we take Putin's words and those of his vassals seriously.

As long as this man is in power in Moscow, Russia will think in imperial terms and rely on revisionism.

However, if a (nuclear) power cannot be integrated into the multilateral system (see failed attempts at change through trade), then the only option left for the time being is containment and deterrence through a new security architecture for Europe and Ukraine, starting the “day after”.

You can find more news and background information on the war in Ukraine here:

  • That happened at night:

    Ukraine accuses Russia of deliberately bombing railway lines.

    Apparently explosions in Russian border town.

    And: self-propelled howitzers from the Netherlands.

    The overview

  • Why the Russian advance is faltering:

    Russia's offensive in eastern Ukraine is progressing slowly, and the wear and tear on both sides is enormous.

    The potentially decisive phase of the war has now begun, probably the last major battle for the time being

  • USA prepares partners for a long war:

    At the Ramstein air force base, the USA rounds up supporters of Ukraine.

    Germany scores with the announcement that it will deliver Gepard tanks.

    But the Americans are pushing for long-term military aid

  • That's what the ancient Leopard 1 tank can do:

    The armaments group Rheinmetall has offered to sell 88 Leopard 1 main battle tanks to Ukraine for a total of 115 million euros.

    But does the decades-old war machine still have any use for the troops?

First a turning point in time, now a turning point in tanks

When was the last time there was such a change in German foreign and security policy as after the Russian invasion of Ukraine?

You have to go back a long way, at least to the new Ostpolitik of the social-liberal coalition in the 1970s.

But what makes the current situation special:

Olaf Scholz's »Zeitenwende« is not over.

The Chancellor must readjust.

And that seems more reactive than active.

Germany is being driven in this crisis, Scholz is not a driver.

Take heavy weapons, for example: They were not supposed to be delivered at all, then others should deliver with German help ("RingSwap") and now Defense Minister Lambrecht has announced the delivery of around 50 old "Gepard" anti-aircraft tanks from industrial stocks.

Internally, there is talk of a "turning point 2.0".

One had to adapt one's own line to the situation on the battlefield, says an official from the federal government involved.

Even if this was difficult for the Chancellery.

(Read our SPIEGEL team's reconstruction of how the Panzerwende came about here).

Nobody in Kyiv may have ordered "cheetahs" - the Ukrainians want the "Marder" infantry fighting vehicle above all - but heavy weapons are heavy weapons.

And maybe an anti-aircraft system just sounds more defensive than an infantry fighting vehicle.

Ukraine is unlikely to refuse.

The chancellor is changing course just in time - or better: adjusting course again - before the pressure from international partners, but also from the FDP and the Greens in the coalition, would have become too great.

Today, the Bundestag is debating in the first round the planned 100 billion euro special fund for the Bundeswehr, which symbolizes the »turn of the era« like no other traffic light project.

In addition, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is taking part in a government survey in the plenary session.

The format is just a small one, but maybe there are big words: about the heavy weapons Baerbock wanted or about the »day after«, see above.

  • This is how the German tank decision came about: the chain reaction

There is no longer any party to be made with Gerhard Schröder

Apart from Helmut Kohl, no other former chancellor has dismantled himself

as tragically

as

Gerhard Schröder

.

But while Helmut Kohl's donation scandal primarily harmed his CDU, Putin's gas lobbyist Schröder is damaging the reputation of the country he once served.

A good two-thirds of Germans support Schröder's expulsion from the SPD.

This was the result of a survey by the opinion research institute Civey, which we will present today on SPIEGEL.de - which you, as readers of the situation in the morning, will receive here exclusively in advance.

The supporters of the

Union parties (74 percent)

and the

Greens (85 percent)

are the most in favor of Schröder being thrown out.

But even among SPD supporters, there is a clear majority (62 percent) in favor of expelling the party.

Schröder can only score points with the left and AfD.

The statistical error is given here as 6.7 percent.

In the west, around 70 percent support Schröder's expulsion from the SPD, in the east it is a good 50 percent (statistical error at 3.7 percent).

mourning III

This is the place to commemorate

some of the countless victims of the Russian invasion of Ukraine

this week .

For me, the story of

Tetiana Perebyinis

is the most impressive in this terrible war, I can't get this photo from March 6 out of my head.

There the 43-year-old lies dead on the street in Irpin, near Kyiv, with her two children Mykyta, 18, and Alisa, 9, and a companion after a Russian attack.

Her husband Serhiy Perebyinis later told the New York Times his wife's story, you can read it here.

The night before the deadly attack, he told his wife on the phone that he was sorry that he couldn't be with her.

Her response was, "Don't worry, I'm getting out of here."

His family wanted to flee together with an acquaintance.

On Sunday he could no longer reach his wife by telephone.

Calls on the daughter's and son's phones also came to nothing.

He found out via Twitter why nobody was responding to his calls.

In a first post he read that a family on the escape route near Irpin had been killed by a mortar attack.

Shortly thereafter, another post showed a photo of the attack site: "I recognized the luggage, so I knew it."

  • Russian attack on a family: "The whole world should know what is happening here"


The latest news from the night

  • The United States is preparing for the rush of migrants to the southern border:

    soon the corona restrictions will also be lifted on the border with Mexico - then the US government fears that the situation will worsen.

    Border management could come under "considerable" pressure

  • Russia is threatening to attack representatives of Western countries in Kiev:

    British Defense Secretary James Heappey recently stated that he did not necessarily consider the use of British weapons against Russia to be problematic.

    Moscow responded with a clear threat

  • US Vice President Kamala Harris infected with corona virus:

    She is one of half of the US population who has already been infected with the virus.

    So far she is symptom free

The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today

  • Ex-President's Washington hotel:

    Trump has a whopping profit to say goodbye

  • Offensive in the Donbass:

    why the Russian advance is faltering

  • Personality test for the job:

    Fully aggro

  • Start of the semester with corona loosening:

    Brave new university world

I wish you a good start into the day.

Yours Sebastian Fischer

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-04-27

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