UK’s macho gestures do not help anyone, says German diplomat

BRITAIN is too eager to fight Russia to the “last Ukrainian” and its “macho gestures” from a “faraway island” do nothing to help Ukraine, a senior German diplomat warned yesterday, after accusations Berlin was putting Kyiv under pressure to make a quick peace deal with Moscow.

Wolfgang Ischinger was chairman of the influential Munich Security Conference, from 2008 to 2022, and a former German ambassador to the US. He hit out after reading reports that Britain was worried France and Germany would push Ukraine to make concessions in peace negotiations with Russia.

“UK eager to fight to the last Ukrainian? Let’s stop such nonsense. Ukraine deserves full support,” Mr Ischinger said.

“Macho gestures from folks sitting on a faraway island will not qualify,” he added. He intervened a day after a spokesman for Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, said the idea Berlin was forcing Kyiv to surrender was “absurd”.

German sources accused British officials of playing politics after a Government source told The Times some allies were “too eager” for Volodymyr Zelensky “to settle”. The Sunday Telegraph understands the UK does not believe that Ukraine needs to make concessions in the peace talks because its resistance to the invasion has been more successful than many expected.

On March 27, Mr Zelensky accused some countries of wanting Kyiv to sign a quick peace deal with Moscow because of their close trading links with Russia, which have been disrupted by sanctions imposed after the invasion.

“Britain wants Ukraine to win and Russia to lose, but I’m not ready to say if Britain wants the war to drag on or not,” Mr Zelensky told The Economist.