(Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expects he’ll find alignment with President-elect Donald Trump on how to end Russia’s war against Ukraine, playing down concerns a shift in US leadership risks splitting Kyiv’s biggest backers.
“I am confident that we can develop a joint strategy for Ukraine,” Scholz said in an interview published by German media group Funke on Saturday. “I have already spoken to the future US president at length on the phone, and we are also in direct contact with his advisers on security policy.”
Trump and his team have been critical of the open-ended support offered to Ukraine to repel President Vladimir Putin’s forces without setting a goal beyond total victory. But with Russian troops making advances, as well as morale and material running low, even officials in Washington and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy have signaled a negotiated halt to the fighting is likely.
The Biden and Trump policies toward the war overlap on strengthening the Ukrainian military, while weakening the Russian economy through sanctions, to push the two sides to negotiations. While Biden has pledged support “as long as it takes,” Trump, who’s sworn in Jan. 20, has promised to end the war swiftly.
Scholz stressed, however, that no resolution could be imposed on Ukraine, and that it “must be able to defend its sovereignty.”
Russia’s war against Ukraine, heading into its fourth year, has been raging “mercilessly,” causing hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries, Scholz said in the interview.
“It is important that the killing comes to an end soon and that Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty remain guaranteed,” Scholz said.
Scholz also cautioned any debate about sending German peacekeeping troops to Ukraine is premature, an apparent response to recent remarks by Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock hinting at such a possibility.
“Such speculation is out of the question at the present time,” Scholz said. “As long as the war rages, there will be no soldiers from Germany, no German ground troops in Ukraine. For the time after that, there must be security guarantees to be discussed so that Ukraine can be certain that Russia will not invade it for a third time since 2014 and 2022.”
Scholz reiterated he would refuse to supply Ukraine with Taurus long-range missiles even if he wins a second term in a federal election expected in February. That puts Germany at odds with decisions by US and UK to allow Ukraine to fire their missile systems into Russia.
“Germany supplies Ukraine with many, many weapons — for air defense, but also with heavy artillery and battle tanks. We will continue to do so,” the chancellor said. “But I stand by my decision not to supply cruise missiles that can reach far into the Russian hinterland. An escalation of this war into a direct conflict between NATO and Russia must be avoided.”
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