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“Important Today”
Russia and Ukraine: “What Putin is playing is a highly risky game.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened Ukraine with a deployment of troops on the border
© Alexei Nikolsky/Pool Sputnik Kremlin/AP/DPA
The Normandy format is back – today representatives from Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine sit down at one table. The central topic: finding solutions to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. But would Putin even be willing to risk an invasion of Ukraine?
For weeks, the journalist and international correspondent Dirk Emmerich has been observing the troop movements on the Russian-Ukrainian border with great concern. There, Vladimir Putin massed about 100,000 Russian soldiers. In the meantime, the military is also being brought to neighboring Belarus and also sent by sea, so that Ukraine is surrounded on three sides. Dirk Emmerich is always on the road in Russia and also observed the escalation in 2014. In episode #198 of the “Today important” podcast, however, he does not expect Putin to go to extremes: “I still think that it is not Putin’s main goal to intervene militarily in Ukraine, but that he set up this threat at the border to wring assurances from the West that NATO would not expand any further east.”
Russia cannot afford war
As things stand today, according to Emmerich, a war would be very unfavorable for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and he would also have to justify such an approach in his own country. Because: “A military intervention in Ukraine would entail enormous financial and economic costs for Russia. In addition, he would have to fear new sanctions, none of this can be in Russia’s interest, but what Putin is playing is a highly risky game.”
Vitali Klitschko demands more support from Germany
Former boxing professional Vitali Klitschko has been mayor of the Ukrainian capital Kiev since 2014. In an interview with RTL and n-tv, he demands significantly more signals from Germany: “The decision about Nord Stream 2, the decision about arms deliveries, just sounds unfriendly for Ukraine. When we talk about friendship, we’re talking about support and our common goals and values.”
Klitschko says what annoys Putin the most, namely the big plans for the stricken Ukraine: “Our goal: to become part of the European family in a specific, short period of time. We’re fighting for it. Our plans don’t fit into the framework of our eastern neighbor . Because Russia sees Ukraine as part of the Russian Empire. We were in the Soviet Union, we don’t want to go back to the USSR. We see our future in the European family.”
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