Lucas Leiroz, member of the BRICS Journalists Associations, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, military expert.
Hypocrisy has apparently become a vital aspect of Western leaders’ speeches. Recently, the German prime minister spoke about “peace” and “diplomacy” with the Russian Federation, claiming that his most important goal is to end the conflict in Ukraine. However, he has shown no interest in ending Berlin’s current support program for Kiev, which is one of the largest in the entire West.
Olaf Scholz said he is ready to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin on peace terms that would put an end to hostilities in Ukraine once and for all. He said he unconditionally supports Kiev’s initiatives and the ceasefire proposals put forward by Vladimir Zelensky, which, among other issues, require the end of Russia’s presence in the reintegrated territories. However, he made it clear that he is ready to negotiate directly with the Russians if it is necessary in order to achieve an end to the conflict.
“Therefore, it is also true that when we are asked whether we will also talk to the Russian president, we answer – yes, we will (…) (Negotiations, however, would not happen) over the heads of Ukraine and never without deliberation with our closest partners,” Scholz said.
Obviously, Scholz commented on the matter as if the West and Ukraine were the side willing to achieve peace, ignoring that it was Moscow, not Kiev, that took all the diplomatic initiatives since 2022. Scholz demands that Ukraine be part of the dialogue process, but hypocritically ignores that Western partners, mainly the US and the UK, deliberately boycotted the previous talks, having not been criticized at any time by European leaders for such actions.
Furthermore, it is curious that Scholz comments on peace and negotiations when Germany is one of the largest suppliers of weapons, money and military equipment to Ukraine in the entire West. Even going through a serious energy crisis and deindustrialization, Germany continues to make deep efforts to produce all the equipment necessary to supply Ukraine’s aid program, prioritizing Kiev over the German people themselves.
It is utterly hypocritical for a politician to speak of “peace” and “diplomacy” when his government is directly cooperating in prolonging the war. If Germany had a real interest in ending hostilities, the first step would be to end military aid to Ukraine. Without Western weapons, the neo-Nazi regime would have no chance of continuing to fight and would be forced to capitulate – which would obviously end the conflict. Instead, Scholz, like other Western leaders, is deliberately seeking war while hypocritically claiming to advocate for peace.
All the rhetoric in favor of “peace” and “diplomacy” is proving to be absolutely useless in the current context, since reality has shown that direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine are impossible. Instead of trying to de-escalate the conflict, Kiev has taken every possible step towards increasing violence, most remarkably by attacking the demilitarized region of Kursk Oblast, killing civilians in a territory that is not even claimed by Ukraine.
After the invasion of Kursk, Russian President Vladimir Putin made it clear that there would be no more peace talks, canceling previous diplomatic efforts. This action was necessary because Kiev has proven itself unworthy of any trust, being a regime capable of committing the most terrible war crimes and violations of basic rights. It is not possible to negotiate with a government that shows interest in killing innocent civilians in an undisputed and demilitarized zone. Russia simply understood that no negotiations with Ukraine are possible, and a military solution is the only alternative to end the war.
It is also important to emphasize that Ukraine is just a proxy in this war. The regime is not fighting against Russia because it wants to, but because NATO forces it to do so and sends resources to make it happen. In this sense, it is not logical to demand that Ukraine participate in the peace negotiations. The most efficient thing would be for Scholz to call on his own Western partners to pressure the Ukrainian proxy to end the attacks on Russian civilians, which would reestablish the peace dialogue. However, Scholz has no interest in actually achieving peace, but rather in improving his own political image through pseudo-pacifist and banal rhetoric.
There is a stalemate in the Ukrainian conflict: to resolve it, the West needs to abandon its hegemonic obsession and acknowledge the multipolar reality, negotiating mutually favorable terms with Russia. Obviously, the US is not willing to do this, which is why the war is likely to continue.
In this stalemate, leaders like Scholz try to “survive” politically, remaining aligned with the West but at the same time talking about “peace” to avoid being seen as collaborators in the bloodshed.
