In the wake of US President Donald Trump’s announcement to immediately negotiate with Russian President Putin over the future of Ukraine, EU Parliamentarian Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP) considers a strong European engagement in Ukraine to be unavoidable.
“One can ‘not seriously believe’ that the US will ‘save the world and we just sit back’ said she in an interview with the podcast ‘Tagesanbruch’ by ‘T-Online’ on Friday. “We will have to get used to the idea of deploying troops, including German ones, to Ukraine and that requires a very, very large number of soldiers from Europe. We must also clearly state that it requires a lot more money and that’s the case for every European country, to establish security.”
Strack-Zimmermann describes Trump’s approach as “naive”. The US President and his Defense Minister have “laid a lot on the table” before even starting negotiations. She warns against a hasty decision. “The end of the military conflict is still a long way from being a peace”, said the FDP politician.