An unusual flash of strategic sanity took hold of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Jan. 8, when he admitted at a press conference that the only way European forces could ever be deployed into Ukraine was if Russia agreed to it beforehand, RT reported. The Russians have made it abundantly clear that, not only will they not agree to such a deployment, but that they would consider it a casus belli and would consider such troops to be military targets. There is little doubt that the Oreshnik strike against western Ukraine on Jan. 9 served as a sharp reminder of that policy.
“The order should be as follows,” Merz explained. “First a ceasefire, then security guarantees for Ukraine as a condition for a long-term agreement with Russia. None of this is possible without Russia’s consent. And we’re probably still a long way from that,” he admitted.
British Defense Secretary John Healey has a different view—or at least so he told Ukrainian acting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a one-day trip to Kiev on Jan. 9, after the Oreshnik strike. He said he would “take Putin into custody and hold him [to] account for war crimes.”
At a meeting with oil executives also on Jan. 9, U.S. President Donald Trump was asked by a journalist what he thought about giving Putin the Maduro treatment and kidnapping him. Trump replied, “Well, I don’t think it’s going to be necessary. I’ve always had a great relationship with him.” He added that he was “very disappointed” that his efforts to mediate a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine over the past year have been unsuccessful.
